Neighbor heard ‘a couple of knocks’ before the woman’s body was found next to

A man staying next to the hotel room where Azalia Wilson’s body was found heard people arguing and a “hit or two” the night she was killed.

Kereru Moses testified on the sixth day of a jury trial for Samuel Moses Samson in Invercargill Superior Court yesterday.

The trial before Judge Gerald Nation began last week after Samson pleaded not guilty to Wilson’s murder at the Bavarian Hotel in Invercargill on November 17, 2019.

Moses told the court that he was living in Dunedin at the time of the incident, but that he traveled to Invercargill for work and often stayed at the hotel.

That particular weekend, she was with her 1-year-old in the room.

They both went to bed around 9:30 pm on Saturday, November 16, but Moses recalled being awakened by his crying son at 1:30 am.

She said it took her son 20 to 30 minutes to go back to sleep, but during that time he heard the voices of a man and a woman arguing and a couple of thumps.

Crown attorney Mary-Jane Thomas asked if Moses could identify where the voices and blows were coming from.

“I’m pretty sure it came from the unit next door.”

He couldn’t hear what they were saying because it was “muffled,” but he noticed that one of the voices was low like a man’s and the other higher like a woman’s.

He woke up again at 4 in the morning but couldn’t hear anything else.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Hugo Young asked if what he had heard meant anything to him.

Moises answered no, and thought it was “just a little argument” between a couple on a Saturday night.

He also told the court that he looked out the window into the parking area during the argument he overheard, as he was concerned that the thumps might have been someone hitting his car.

However, he only saw his car parked at the site.

A witness who was granted name suppression said Samson sent him a message via an app on Monday, November 18, around 3 p.m., asking for help because he wanted to turn himself in.

She said Samson told her he was scared and did not want to turn himself in before speaking to an officer he knew, as he feared the police would shoot him.

Two police officers who were first on the scene yesterday spoke about the procedures that were carried out to secure the crime scene, including the use of boots and gloves when they entered the unit.

Samson’s sister, Santana Watkins, also testified, telling the court how Samson contacted her around midnight on Tuesday, November 19, to pick him up from Clifton and deliver him.

“To me, he looked cold and tired.”

She said Samson wanted to go directly to the police, but decided to take him to his hotel where he could shower and get some sleep before turning himself in the next morning.

She recalled her brother saying that “he couldn’t or couldn’t imagine life without her.”

The trial continues.