Ōtara murder re-trial: Prosecutors lay out case against Timothy Huriwaka

Joseph Ngamu was shot in the stomach and another man was killed at a block of flats in Bairds Rd. Photo / Google

After stewing in jail for a year over an acquaintance who had spoken to police about him, Timothy Kahurangi Huriwaka put in motion a series of actions that resulted in the shooting of two men, one fatally, prosecutors have told jurors at Huriwaka's murder retrial.

But Huriwaka didn't fire a weapon himself and neither of the two men who suffered gunshot wounds was the person he allegedly had a beef with, prosecutors also acknowledged today as they addressed the new jury.

The person who did pull the trigger, Michael Keith Robinson, 31, pleaded guilty last year to wounding Joseph Ngamu with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and to the murder of a 24-year-old man who continues to have name suppression.

"The Crown says they are both responsible for what happened," prosecutor David Stevens told jurors today as the trial got under way. "The defendant was very much a part of what happened that night."

Huriwaka had been out of jail for just 10 days in February 2020 when he drove his mother's Honda station wagon with Robinson and a 15-year-old associate to a Bairds Rd home in Ōtara, South Auckland, where Joseph Ngamu and brother Bruce Lee Ngamu both lived.

Several people at the home recalled Huriwaka speaking to Bruce Lee Ngamu at that time about a statement Ngamu had given to police in February 2019, according to prosecutors. Huriwaka had served the one-year jail stint a short time after the statement, although the reason for his jail term was unrelated to what Bruce Lee Ngamu told police, prosecutors said. Nevertheless, they said, the defendant seemed to have dwelled on the matter.

"Nobody [at the Baird Rd property] knew Mr Robinson," Stevens said of the first visit that day. "He was a stranger to them."

Both men left the property without incident. But later that evening they picked up another teen associate and drove to a Mangere address where they picked up a firearm, which Robinson went in to get, prosecutors said.

Huriwaka instructed one of the teens to drive the car to the Bairds Rd property while he and Robinson spoke in the back seat, Stevens told jurors, adding that Huriwaka then told the teen to back the car into the driveway when they arrived so that it would face the street.

Once there, both Huriwaka and Robinson returned to the house while the teens stayed in the car.

Joseph Ngamu, unaware Robinson had a gun, allowed him in the property to have a drink while Huriwaka remained at the gate talking to Bruce Lee Ngamu, prosecutors said.

But while inside the property, Robinson pulled out the gun and pointed it at Joseph Ngamu's chest. Joseph Ngamu grabbed the gun and pulled it down but was shot in the stomach. In a struggle that ensued, Robinson was pushed against a fence. He shot again, hitting the man with name suppression who would die a short time later.

Both Huriwaka and Robinson were arrested days later.

"This wasn't a social visit," Stevens said. "At the very least, the defendant and Mr Robinson went there to intimidate or frighten the occupants with that firearm ...

"The defendant had a score to settle."

But defence lawyer Shane Cassidy said there never was a plan on Huriwaka's part to intimidate or hurt anyone.

"Mr Robinson acted alone, and that's the essence of the defence case," he countered during a short address to jurors. "He did what he did for his own reasons.

"Mr Robinson decided that he wanted to kill someone, and that's exactly what he did. Mr Huriwaka knew nothing of it."

Justice Paul Davison acknowledged to jurors today that they're not the first group to have heard the case. But their job, he emphasised, is to view the evidence fresh and not concern themselves with what occurred previously.

"Retrials can happen for a number of reasons, and what happened at the first trial is irrelevant," he instructed.