Court hears of how murder accused shot another man

The trial is taking place in the High Court in Gisborne. Photo / File

Just a year before he allegedly shot Douglas Witeri between the eyes and killed him, Troy Vincent McHugh shot another man who owed him money, a jury in the High Court at Gisborne was told yesterday.

The Crown was granted an application to include the evidence, which it said showed propensity by McHugh for the sort of crimes for which he is on trial.

McHugh, 44, is charged with murdering Mr Witeri at a Kowhai Street house at about 2.40am on April 28 last year.

He is also charged with recklessly discharging a firearm near the resident of the house, Jermaine Whatuira, who was in the same room at the time, and that while armed, he robbed Mr Whatuira of about $300.

A woman, who has interim name suppression, is on trial with him. She faces three charges of being an accessory after the fact to wounding - the Crown conceding she did not know Witeri had died when she allegedly assisted McHugh to get rid of the gun and asked a man to dispose of clothing and bullets.

McHugh also faces other charges not directly arising from the Kowhai Street incident. Yesterday, day six of the trial, the Crown called evidence relating to those charges.

Jurors heard McHugh enticed a fellow inmate Rangi Wickliffe, who had already spent 35 years of his life in and out of prison, to take the rap for the murder. He offered him a $100,000 inducement - half of which was to be from a bogus insurance claim. The court heard that evidence to support a charge of conspiracy to pervert justice and using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage.

Alternatively-laid charges of wounding with intent to either do grievous bodily harm or with intent to injure, related to an incident 11 months before the alleged murder of Mr Witeri. The jury was told by the Crown that incident showed McHugh's propensity for violence with firearms.

A witness, Joesph Apatu Nepe Davies, 38, told the court he allowed McHugh to deliberately shoot him in the leg one night in lieu of a gambling debt he ran up while the pair were playing pool.

Highly intoxicated and agreeing to let the matter lie, Davies told the court he carried on drinking with McHugh for several hours. Later forced to seek treatment at Gisborne Hospital when the wound got worse, he was unco-operative with hospital staff and police.

He revealed the true cause of the wounds only when police contacted him after the slaying of Mr Witeri, Davies said.

Defence lawyers Noel Sainsbury for McHugh and Russell Fairbrother for his co-defendant, challenged witnesses over the charges.

Mr Sainsbury said McHugh's insurance claim was legitimate. He had an insurance assessor who gave evidence to confirm the claim had been well investigated and tthe company was willing to pay out about $33,000 to McHugh before police intervened.

The Crown called another of McHugh's fellow inmates at Rimutaka, Nathan Alexander Taal, to support the conspiracy charge.

Mr Taal said he became friends with both McHugh and Wickliffe while on remand.

Within the first 14 days McHugh was there, he had revealed to him that he shot in the head a guy who robbed him of $20,000.

- Gisborne Herald