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THE older brother of Harley Hicks has told the court he saw a baton on the floor of the bedroom of the accused man several days after baby Zayden Veal-Whitting was found bludgeoned to death in his cot.
Zayden died from more than 25 injuries to the head while sleeping in his cot overnight on June 14/15, 2012.
The Crown has this week alleged in the Supreme Court that the murder weapon was a baton.
Joshua Hicks today told the court that when he was cleaning the Long Gully house after the first police search at the property, he saw a baton in Harley's room.
"While we were cleaning the room up we were using the green bags to pack stuff away in, I must have put it in the bag. I don't remember,'' he said.
"The green bags after we put stuff in it we put them in the car and not long afterwards the police arrived with another search warrant.''
Joshua told the court he had seen the baton at the house before, as it was a dog's chew toy, and he assumed it belonged to Harley.
He said it "was a blunder'' that he had told police in earlier statements that he had never seen the baton before.
The court heard Joshua saw Harley leave his Long Gully house on foot on the evening of June 14, and return in the early hours the following morning with his backpack and several green bags.
He said he saw Harley remove items from the green bags in the house the following day.
Josh told the court he saw "a couple of phones, set-top box, an Xbox 360, sunglasses''.
The court heard Josh received a text from Harley at 5.42AM on June 16 reading: "Put the w-i-g-h-t, dot, dot, box in the car until further notice. Everything all good. Do it as soon as you get this, okay Josh? And make sure it's hidden in there and delete this message. Love you, brudda.''
Joshua said he put an x-box in a car in the driveway following that message.
The court earlier heard from Alan Smith, who has known Harley Hicks since he was a child.
Mr Smith told the court he went to bed about 2.30am on June 15, and about an hour later heard a loud knock on the door. He got out of bed and opened the door to Harley Hicks.
He said Mr Hicks ate a sausage roll and asked to be driven home. On the way home, Mr Hicks asked Mr Smith to stop at a church in Long Gully, got out of the car for "no more than a minute'' and returned with a pile of CDs.
He said he then received directions to Mr Hicks' house and dropped him off.
When Mr Smith got home, he received a phone call from Mr Hicks telling he had forgotten his bag containing cannabis and asked him to return it straight away. Mr Smith said Mr Hicks did not have a bag with him when he entered his property.
He drove back to Mr Hicks' house before putting his hand into the back of his car and finding a bag.
He took the bag inside Mr Hicks' house and gave it to him, and then left.
Mr Smith could not remember if his car was locked in the driveway that night.
The court also heard evidence from Bendigo Health emergency department director, Dr Diana Badcock, who said Zayden was "without life'' when he arrived at the hospital.
"It was not breathing, it did not have a cardiac output and it looked, to all intents and purposes, dead on arrival,'' she said.
"There were multiple bruises around the face and head,'' she said.
Zayden was pronounced dead at 8.05am.
The trial continues.