Kawhia shooting: wife describes terrifying moment when intruders broke into her home

The wife of a man on trial for murder has described the moment when armed intruders fought on the ground with her husband after breaking into the couple’s remote country home in the middle of the night.

“I was wondering if they were going to tie me up or sexually assault me ​​or if they were going to kill Orren or my children,” Taryn Williams told the Hamilton Superior Court, where her husband Orren Williams is on trial for the murder of Faalili Moleli. Fauatea.

She was woken up around 3 a.m. by what sounded like a vehicle hitting a ranch slider at the home on Harbor Rd in Hauturu, a small farming community near Kawhia in King Country on June 6 of last year.

In fact, it was four men dressed in ski masks and armed who went through the back door while their young children, a boy and a girl aged 6 and 4, slept nearby.

He got out of bed and confronted an intruder with a machete who demanded that he know where an acquaintance was and to “get off.”

The mother grabbed the machete and told the court that she surprised the intruder, but the action was not without consequences.

“A very tall man with what I assumed was the rifle hit my back.”

The butt of the rifle hit Taryn on the shoulder blade.

“It was extremely painful. I didn’t defend myself.”

His daughter screamed from her bedroom.

“She screamed. I said ‘Go back to your bed baby’. I didn’t want to be grabbed. I didn’t want her to see what was going on.”

Taryn was dragged into the living room where her husband was fighting on the floor with two of the intruders.

“I could see bodies shaking … a crash.”

She was hit again with a gun to the thigh. She knelt down and became submissive.

“I didn’t want to hurt myself again. I didn’t want to scream because I didn’t want the kids to hear me scream.”

One of the intruders yelled “Get them” as Orren escaped the fight in the hall.

The 38-year-old farmer ran to the laundry room where he broke into his weapons cabinet.

Back in the living room, Taryn found herself alone. He ran to his daughter’s bedroom and found her wrapped in a blanket.

He grabbed the boy, his mobile phone and ran to his son’s bedroom. Then the three of them opened a window and she lowered the children before leaving herself.

Taryn told the jury of six men and six women that she led the two children in the dark, climbing over a bench to a fence. She was fleeing to a neighboring property.

While it was running, the mobile phone rang. It was her husband, but Taryn said she turned off the phone for fear it would illuminate her position.

During questioning, Taryn admitted that she heard two batches of shots, but could not remember how many shots were fired in each batch.

“He said, ‘I think I could have gotten one.’

Crown Prosecutor Rebecca Mann asked Taryn if she knew if her husband had fired at the fleeing intruders, run out of ammunition, returned to the house, reloaded and fired again. She does not.

On why she didn’t call the police, Taryn said she planned to do it when she got to her neighbor’s house, but first spoke to Orren, who told her to go back to the house.

She discovered that her husband had a head injury wrapped in a T-shirt.

Back at the house, he did not call the police because the couple had drugs hidden there, “a pound or so.”

“It’s not enough for that kind of takedown.”

There was no money in the house, but cannabis was scattered around the house, she admitted when questioned.

Mann told Taryn, a friend, Emma Salvation, who has been convicted of burglary for plotting the burglary, had seen two large bags of marijuana in the house when she called that night.

Taryn told the court that they were lies and said she had a bag half full of the plant along with a box of “tips and cabbage” that was disposed of at the port.

“Because it would incriminate me.”

Mann asked if the drugs explained why the men had broken into her home.

“Initially I thought they had only come for firearms.”

He admitted that he had confided in Salvation days before that Orren had been reserved.

In the early afternoon, Orren told the court that he used methamphetamine recreationally, but was not using it the night of the invasion.

He described the shooting, which unfolded like a scene from an action movie.

In the laundry room, Orren pulled a gun out of his closet. He surveyed the exterior and told the court that he thought the intruders were “gathering or arming.”

He got out and hid from the men in the car before ducking, ducking sideways, and standing to fire.

The trial continues tomorrow before Judge Mary Peters.

* Shaun Te Kanawa, Grayson Toilolo and Joe Tumaialu were charged with aggravated robbery for their role in the incident. Te Kanawa and Tumaialu have been convicted, however Toilolo’s case is still before the court. Emma Salvation received a 12-month home arrest sentence for her involvement in planning the robbery.