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When “evil” men broke into a man’s Waikato home in the dark, a gun was Orren Williams’ only real option to defend his family, his attorney says.
Orren Scott Williams, 38, is on trial in Hamilton Superior Court on one count of murder and three counts of injuries with intent to inflict serious bodily harm from the June 2019 incident at the house overlooking the Kāwhia harbor .
He protected himself and his family after the four men, armed with a pistol and a machete, broke into his home in the early hours of June 6, defense attorney Philip Morgan QC told jury Monday afternoon. .
“What this case is about is a man who faced, I mean, evil men with bad deeds on their minds, who reacted to what he perceived as the most terrible threat to himself and his family,” Morgan said.
“What else could he have thought when those four men, big men, confident and armed, made their way into his house, took him into the living room, took his wife into the living room too, made her squat on the floor? With a gun towards her, and wrestled with him? What were the circumstances as he believed them to be?
Williams was bleeding, terrified and in a panic as he ran for his gun safe, Morgan said.
The men followed him, allowing his wife to escape, dragged their two children out the window and ran towards her.
Dominico Zapata / Things
The shooting occurred in Hauturu, near Kāwhia, on the west coast of Waikato, in June 2019.
Williams was acting in self-defense and the jury should find him not guilty, Morgan said.
Crown’s case against Williams is that the men broke in to steal cannabis, and Williams was not content to let them go once he got his semiautomatic, but instead shot them as they fled.
Looking at that, you could imagine Williams was thinking “gosh I’m going to lose my cannabis,” Morgan said.
“The defense case … has nothing to do with it. It was about the immediate threat posed by these men. “
Williams was hit with the machete during the fight, and at one point he was bleeding so badly he couldn’t see, Morgan said.
He opened a gun safe in the laundry room and loaded a rifle when the men broke down a door.
When they weren’t following him and the house fell silent, he peeked out a garage window to see an unknown car drive down the driveway and pull over to the side.
To her horror, she realized there were men outside the car and that something was happening, and she decided she should go out and investigate, Morgan said.
He saw figures approaching and moving in the dark and he shot them and the car.
“Under those circumstances, when he started shooting in the direction of the car and thought they were going to look for him again, he was totally justified,” Morgan said.
Williams went back inside to recharge and returned to find the car now in front of his house.
“He shot over [the men’s] heads – bang, bang, bang – so those men would know he was armed and that he was still dangerous, so they wouldn’t go up there. “
After reloading a second time, he returned and watched the men walk away.
“Yes, there was a tragedy,” Morgan said. “That has had the effect of killing the deceased [Faalili Moleli Fauatea]. “
Shaun Te Kanawa was shot in the forearm, Joe Tumaialu in the ankle and Grayson Toilolo was “very unlucky” to be hit in the driver’s seat by a bullet that went through two seats and fragmented.
Williams is due to testify Tuesday, and his wife, Taryn, will also be called.
