“It was either her or me – she just accepted her fate,” Anaru Morunga said of the final moments of Jasmaine Reihana.
WARNING: This article discusses graphic violence and may be upsetting to some readers.
In the hours before killing his ex‑partner, Anaru Morunga told police he believed she had set him up, trapping him in a world of gang threats where he thought suicide was his only escape.
“It was either her or me – she just accepted her fate,” he said of Jasmaine Reihana’s final moments.
Morunga, 35, is currently on trial in the High Court at Whangārei, charged with murdering Reihana, the mother to two of his children, in September 2024.
The Crown alleges he killed Reihana at the Pouto Peninsula home in Northland he shared with his mother, Suzanne Morunga, and her partner, Michael Jones.
He is also accused of arson after allegedly setting Reihana’s car alight with her body inside at the far end of the Ripirō Beach farm, before fleeing and leading police on a State Highway 12 chase that ended with his arrest near the Brynderwyn Hills.
For more than five hours, the jury listened to Morunga’s police evidential interview recorded at the Kaikohe Police Station on September 27, 2024.
Morunga described a world he believed was collapsing around him where threats were everywhere and danger was closing in.
In the days leading up to Reihana’s death, the pair had been at a tangi in Ōtorohanga which Morunga claims was “a sea of mobsters, patched members”.
Across the weekend he described hearing voices, believing his son and his brother had been kidnapped, and that his family was under imminent threat.
Morunga said he heard one of his children “screaming his face off”, and although he could not find him, he was certain something was wrong.
“Could’ve just been my craziness,” Morunga admitted.
“But you sort of know your kid’s voice.”
Throughout the interview, Morunga repeatedly returned to the claim Reihana had orchestrated a violent plot against him and his family.
Despite admitting he was “cooked like a cooked thing” from smoking methamphetamine, he said Reihana was jealous, angry and capable of anything.
“That’s when I realised she had kidnapped my son, there isn’t any more boundaries she wasn’t willing to cross,” Morunga said.
“She told me she was going to kill my mum and Michael, my stepfather, if I didn’t play her game.
“That’s what she said.”
Pathologists have given evidence toxicology reports from Reihana only returned a small trace of alcohol.
Morunga’s story went back and forth over timelines and various locations they had travelled to on Sunday, September 8, including Tauranga, Māngere, New Lynn, Dargaville and Pouto.
Morunga said when they were at a Burger King in New Lynn, men stormed the store and jumped over the counters.
“The shop keepers are freaking out but they played along,” Morunga said.
“To have that CCTV would have been a great additive to the story to show this s*** just isn’t in my head. This s*** actually did happen.”
No CCTV from Burger King has been presented to the jury.
Morunga described convoys of vehicles following them to Pouto with “false floors” in Reihana’s car where a “trigger man” was waiting to shoot him.
“I couldn’t go into a shop without 10 people watching,” he said.
“I was f***ed.”
He told police he believed these people wanted him to kill himself.
“Don’t make it too difficult for anyone – just kill yourself bro,” he claimed people were telling him.
Morunga believed he was backed into a corner convinced his children’s futures were at stake as Reihana was going to sell them to the Mongrel Mob.
“My reasoning behind the death of Jasmaine was to protect my family and my kids’ future,” he said.
“It wasn’t intentionally planned.”
As he described events, Morunga repeatedly avoided the period Reihana was stabbed and said his mind was “locked up”, and he was struggling to access memories.
“It’s locked in the trauma of everything,” he said.
“If I try to come at a different angle like insight and perception from someone else’s shoes maybe that could help unlock a door shall we try that?”
“Okay then,” the officer responded.
Morunga then went on to apologise for “Jaz being gone” and that he did it for his kids.
“I don’t know if I made the right decision but I’m pretty sure everyone’s going to end up hurt anyways so I guess I apologise for that, for the mamae [pain] everyone’s feeling. For the mamae you’re going to have to live without Jasmaine around anymore.”
But after an hour, Morunga went silent again and still did not reveal what happened.
The officer left and returned with photos of the crime scene taken minutes after Morunga had left the house with Reihana’s body.
“Couldn’t they find me?” he asked.
Morunga said the photos “unlocked the memory” and went on to say Reihana had been saying she needed to be somewhere.
Reihana’s whānau have given evidence they were expecting her in Kaikohe that evening.
“I cut her open like a sheep, slit her neck right open, let her go and then she f***ing lay down on the ground and then died,” Morunga said.
“Why did you cut her neck?” he was asked.
“‘Cause it’s the quickest fastest way.”
“Did she scream?” the officer asked.
“Nah, she just accepted her fate.”
Morunga said he watched her soul leave her body and “ate it” before saying she will be inside him forever.
He said he cleaned up, because his mother would be returning home.
“I thought that was a terrible thing for my mum to come home to.”
He then wrapped Reihana in his favourite blanket, threw her body in her car and towed the car by tractor to the end of the farm he worked on near Ripirō Beach.
Morunga said he did that to preserve evidence as the car “would spread light on the situation” and had DNA that would support his story.
“It had had plug and play, every scripture from every other phone and I needed that car for evidence.”
He said he did not set fire to the vehicle but claims there were trucks, vehicles and people hiding around the farm watching him as he left.
The trial continues before Justice David Johnstone.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.