A woman who was allegedly murdered on Shetland was going to pay a ‘tick bill’ for drugs on the night she died, a court has heard.
Tracey Walker died on July 30 last year in Lerwick. Ross McDougall, 32, and Dawn Smith, 28, deny murdering her.
At the second day of their trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, witness Lisa Marie Johnson, 45, who described Ms Walker as her “best friend”, gave evidence.
Ms Johnson told how she and Ms Walker lived next door to each other in Lerwick’s Leslie Road.
On Thursday, a jury heard how Ms Johnson provided a statement to police officers investigating the circumstances surrounding Ms Walker’s death.
Jurors heard how Ms Johnson told officers that her friend said the ‘tick bill’ was for “coke” and “brown.” The jury were told that these were expressions for cocaine and heroin.
Ms Johnson said: “I knew she was sort of dabbling in it at that time.”
Ms Johnson told prosecution lawyer Steven Borthwick that Ms Walker made the tick list admission when the two women were in a taxi together in the early hours of July 30.
Ms Johnson said that during the journey Ms Walker asked the driver to drop her off.
Ms Johnson added: “She just said she was meeting somebody up in Ladies Drive.”
The court heard that Ms Johnson provided two statements to police investigating Ms Walker’s death. She told officers about the ‘tick bill’ in the second statement.
McDougall and Smith deny murdering Ms Walker at Ladies Drive, Lerwick, on July 30 last year. They are also standing trial on four other charges.
The court also heard from Ms Walker’s 44-year-old brother Dell Rees Smith, who said: “She struggled with a drug problem.”
Prosecutors claim that on July 30 last year at Ladies Drive, Ms Smith had “without reasonable excuse or lawful authority” a knife.
The second charges alleges that on the same date at the same location, Mr MacDougall and Ms Smith assaulted Ms Walker and inflicted “blunt force trauma to her head by means unknown”.
It is also alleged that the two accused compressed her neck with their hands and that they struck her repeatedly on the neck and hand with “a knife or similar instrument.”
Prosecutors claim that the two accused attempted to rob her of money and that they “did murder her”.
On the same date, at Ladies Drive in Lerwick, it is alleged that Mr MacDougall and Ms Smith assaulted a man called Gary Latham and brandished a knife at him, demanded money and drugs and kicked the door to his house with “the intent to rob him”.
The fourth charge states that at 18 Bakland, Lerwick, the two asked Kyle Swannie to provide them with an alibi, a “change of clothing and a bag” and disposed of their own clothes.
The indictment states that they carried out the alleged action to “conceal and destroy evidence” and that they did “attempt to pervert the course of justice.”
The fifth charge alleges that at 103 Nederdale, in Lerwick, Mr MacDougall took and drove a car without the owner’s consent.
Both Mr MacDougall and Ms Smith, have entered not guilty pleas to all charges, all alleged to have taken place on July 30 last year.
The trial continues.
