Jamin Harrison murder trial: Witness at Ōmanawa property feared trio would be killed

The Ōmanawa murder accused is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua.

A witness present at a shooting in Ōmanawa told a detective he had feared he and two others at the property could be killed after a car turned up late at night.

A Bay of Plenty man, whose name is suppressed, is accused of murdering Tauranga man Jamin Roemaata Harrison, 30, having shot him dead in the driveway of a McLaren Falls Rd property on January 25, 2021.

The Crown says Harrison was unarmed when he turned up at the property to buy drugs, accompanied by a female associate, about 10pm.

The defendant, whose trial began in the Rotorua High Court on Monday, told police he thought Harrison had a gun and claims to have acted in defence of himself and his partner after they were earlier violently assaulted and seriously injured during a home invasion.

Today, the jury watched a taped interview of Detective Shaun Skedgwell interviewing a Crown witness, who has name suppression, who was at the McLaren Falls Rd property during the shooting.

Skedgwell told the witness that he could be seen on CCTV holding a lever-action 30-30 firearm, and that Harrison being shot and killed had also been captured on video.

The witness said he had arrived at the property late afternoon. Later that evening, he heard a “lot of yelling and carry-on”.

“[The defendant’s partner] had yelled out that there was someone in the driveway and [the defendant] sprung into action and went outside to try and see who it was.”

The witness said he tried to see down the driveway to see who had arrived, but it was too dark and he could only see vehicle headlights.

He also said the defendant told him to grab something for protection from a plastic barrel, although he did not know it was a gun until he reached inside. He did not know if it was loaded.

“There were no other firearms in the barrel and I had never seen [the defendant] with a firearm before, until after I heard the shot.”

The witness said he hid behind a shed on the property because he didn’t want to be “blasted or anything”.

He said he was yelling “who is it, who’s that” but no one was yelling back until the defendant did.

“I was really freaking out.

“[It] all happened so fast, but I did not see the defendant retrieve the shotgun... There was yelling and yelling.

“I couldn’t work out who anyone was in the dark, then boom.”

The witness said he did not see the shotgun being discharged and could not see where the defendant or his partner were, and was not sure if anyone had got out of the vehicle.

He was worried about the defendant and his partner, and also feared he could be killed.

The witness said the defendant told him to take the 30-30, and “get out of here, mate”.

“I didn’t want to leave him there as I didn’t know if they [the visitors] would come back.”

“I said to him ‘let’s get out of here’, I was f****** freaking out.”

The witness said he left the property after the defendant insisted.

The witness told the detective he did not walk down to the gate or see the person lying on the driveway and only learned a man had died from a report online.

During cross-examination by the defendant’s lawyer David Niven, the witness was asked about his earlier comment to police about the defendant being “pretty banged up”.

The witness said the defendant and his partner were “worried sick” about the motives of the occupants of the car that suddenly turned up at the vehicle gate after someone had earlier “bashed the shit out of them”.

“I was worried, too,” he said.

The trial continues and is expected to take up to three weeks.