Finauga "Lee" Faatoia and wife Sarah. Lee Faatoia was fatally stabbed during an altercation in April last year at a Mt Wellington property. His wife had told him she had a bad feeling about his plan to visit the property.
Simmering tensions between a landlord and her two tenants boiled over into murder when a hired man dressed in military fatigues and armed with a Bear Grylls “survival knife” stormed a Mt Wellington flat to “rough” up two boarders and convince them to leave, the Crown alleges.
Finauga Faatoia, 40, burst into the couple’s bedroom, telling them to “get the f*** out”, a murder trial in the High Court at Auckland heard yesterday.
But the intimidation tactics were about to backfire.
Fearing he and his girlfriend were about to die, the man fetched his own knife and stabbed Faatoia in the jugular.
Though bleeding heavily from a “significant” neck injury that left blood spatter across the bed and bedroom walls, Faatoia didn’t die immediately.
The former actor, whose wife claimed he had worked on Shortland Street and served 16 tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force, was still moving and making noises.
But instead of leaving him to “succumb to his injury” or offering medical assistance, the man and his girlfriend allegedly dragged Faatoia from the bedroom to an outdoor patio and continued the attack.
During her opening statement, Crown prosecutor Clare Paterson told the jury of five women and seven men that the man rained more blows with his knife into Faatoia’s body.
He also stomped and kicked the victim about the head and face as the woman “encouraged and incited” him.
The Crown alleged the woman then joined in the attack, kicking or stomping Faatoia as he lay face down on the patio floor.
Parts of the incident were captured on CCTV footage, which would be played to the jury, Paterson said, along with mobile phone footage taken by the woman of a knife-wielding Faatoia threatening the couple in the moments before he was fatally stabbed.
The couple are both charged with Faatoia’s murder, of which the woman is accused of being a party to because of her actions in encouraging the violence.
That the man caused Faatoia’s death is not in dispute. However, the defendants argue the killing was in self-defence.
The incident occurred on August 31 last year at a new-build townhouse development in Tomuri Place, Mt Wellington.
The court heard the property had been leased by landlord Rebecca Allcock.
But Allcock didn’t live there. She sublet individual rooms to flatmates – a commercial arrangement she repeated at various other properties across Auckland.
The couple had been living at the property for several months and had got offside with Allcock, the court heard, due to noise issues and rent arrears.
Ten days before the killing, Allcock trespassed the couple and had police visit the property for an alleged breach.
But when police took no action and left the couple at the property, Allcock needed another plan, Paterson said.
“This is where Mr Faatoia came into the picture.”
Faatoia was also one of Allcock’s tenants and had helped her resolve disputes with other boarders, the court heard.
She asked for his help to evict the couple. He agreed to pay them a visit to look for “evidence” of drug use, telling his wife Sarah he would be paid a “significant amount of money”.
In messages that would be read to the court, Allcock told Faatoia: “I will be interested to see what you uncover.”
He replied: “Just a warning, I may have to rough them up a bit to get them out.”
“I’m fine with that,” Allcock responded.
The court heard Faatoia rode his motorcycle to the property and entered the defendants’ bedroom unannounced about 1pm.
He pulled a knife from his clothing and told the couple to leave, as the woman began recording on her mobile phone.
Faatoia demanded the woman’s phone, at which point the recording ended.
Paterson said there was “no question” Faatoia was intimidating and threatening the couple.
“What happened next was a violent altercation.”
Paterson said the man grabbed his own knife and sliced Faatoia’s jugular vein, which a pathologist found was the “direct cause” of his death.
The defendants then pulled Faatoia out to the patio through a ranch-slider door.
“Mr Faatoia wasn’t dead yet. He was still alive and attempting to get up.
“The attack on Mr Faatoia did not end there,” Paterson told the jury.
The man repeatedly stabbed Faatoia as he lay on the patio, stomping and kicking his head, as the woman “shouted encouragement” and joined the attack, the jury heard.
The jury would hear a 111 call in which the woman could be heard screaming.
First responders found Faatoia lying motionless and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
“We have a situation that starts with a dispute between a landlord and tenants, escalates with a third party, and ends with the third party’s murder,” Paterson said.
The Crown was not saying Allcock or Faatoia’s actions were fair or legal. But the violence meted out by the couple went well beyond self-defence and amounted to murder, Paterson said.
The man’s lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade said her client was innocent and it was for the Crown to prove he was not acting in self-defence.
Kincade said Faatoia burst into the bedroom dressed “head to toe” in military-style clothing before producing a knife and attacking the woman in her bed.
When the couple warned him they had called police, Faatoia allegedly responded: “Police won’t get here by the time I am done with you.”
The man felt he had no choice but to stab Faatoia, Kincade said.
“His girlfriend was being attacked by an armed man. It is both good law and good sense that a man who is attacked may defend himself.”
Her client suffered a bite wound to his arm and the woman suffered “defensive lacerations” to her hands.
Kincade urged the jury to keep and open mind until they had heard all the evidence.
Faatoia’s wife Sarah then took the stand. She said her husband had done odd jobs for Allcock in the past, including “mediation” between flatmates.
About a week before his death he told her he’d agreed to visit the property to look for evidence of drugs to help Allcock evict the couple.
Sarah said she was concerned about Faatoia’s safety, telling him it wasn’t worth the risk.
“I had a really bad feeling. I said, ‘Babe, you don’t have to do this’. He said Rebecca was going to pay him and it was going to help our situation. He said, ‘Don’t worry babe, everything will be okay’.”
The trial continues before Justice Alexander MacGillivray.
Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.