Kawhia shooting: Charged with ‘shoot to kill out of anger’, Crown tells jury

Orren Williams was angry and “shot to kill” four men after he fired at least eight shots at them as they fled after making their way into their rural home.

In her final presentation to the jury of six men and six women in Hamilton Superior Court today, Crown Prosecutor Jacinda Hamilton said Williams was retaliating after they broke in and attempted to steal two large bags of cannabis.

“The Crown says he was not acting to defend himself, he was acting in anger, maybe sending a message, don’t go back and try this again and he did so by firing his high powered rifle repeatedly, at least eight times.”

Williams denies one count of murder and three of injuring four men with intent to cause serious bodily injury during the early hours of June 6 of last year.

Williams has alleged, through his lawyer Philip Morgan QC, that he was acting in self-defense when he shot the men and was justified in doing so under the circumstances.

However, Hamilton told the court today that the self-defense test was strict and could only be justified by actions necessary to avoid an imminent threat in circumstances that the defendant believed existed at the time.

“In other words, there is no room for gratuitous violence … shooting as he did was clearly unreasonable,” he said.

She asked the jury to consider the threat he perceived when he fired “shot after shot after shot.”

“At least eight times … not because he sensed an ongoing threat but, in his words, because he was compromised.

“Not knowing what someone else is going to do does not mean that it is necessarily reasonable to shoot them and that is the case if they have not shot you and had the opportunity to do so.”

Wanting people to “hurry up and go” was also not a justification for self-defense.

“A person who has a firearm does not give another a license to kill.”

In the house, as the group fought in the living room, Williams testified that he could tell the man with the gun was never going to pull the trigger, so he jumped up and ran to his gun cabinet in the laundry room, leaving his wife kneeling at the feet of the gunman. .

Hamilton said one of the men kicked in the door, but then they all fled, probably knowing what was behind that door and remembering that her friend Emma Salvation told her that Williams would shoot them if they tried to steal her cannabis.

As for shooting in the dark, Hamilton told the jury that Williams knew his family was not out there and that he would likely get hit with his shots.

Despite his denial, the Crown claimed that he was able to speak briefly to his wife before they jumped out of a bedroom window and ran down a muddy shore.

Then he got out and saw the rear of the car about 45 meters away and looked at it shooting.

He said the men would have been targeted by the car’s headlights, and Williams treated them as such.

“There is absolutely no way in the world that repeated shots are a reasonable force … that jurors could never be reasonable in the circumstances in which you think they are.

“I suggest extremely reckless.”

Earlier this morning, when asked about a statement to the police last year, Williams’s wife, Taryn, told the jury that she had no idea why the men would want to break in as they weren’t “rich.” although they made a little money from their fruit stand.

However, he admitted to Mann that the cannabis they sold had “significant monetary value.”

“Yes it was.”

As for why she didn’t call the police and why she avoided their calls at 7:50 am, she wanted to calm her children and make sure her husband had disposed of the cannabis he had.

“I didn’t want to talk to the police because I just wanted time to take a break, reassure my children, keep them calm, and I was hoping that Orren had gotten rid of the cannabis.”

She said that she knew the police would take her husband away and that she did not want to be caught with her cannabis supplies, so she took him away in the car while driving to her friend’s house.

“Yes, I wanted to protect my children by getting rid of him … throw him away. I knew they would probably take Orren and … they needed me … and I needed to protect my children.”

Williams, 38, has pleaded not guilty to one count of the murder of Faalili Moleli Fauatea, 23, and three other counts of wounding with intent to cause serious bodily harm to Shaun Te Kanawa, Grayson Toilolo and Joe Tumaialu.

Defense attorney Philip Morgan, QC, will deliver his final presentations tomorrow morning.

Judge Mary Peters will deliver her summary before submitting it to begin her deliberations.

* 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.