Double killer 'taught by masterminds'

Four men accused of sending Ese Junior Falealii on a crime spree that ended in two cold-blooded murders instructed him in the "arts of armed robbery", a High Court jury has been told.

Two of the men are charged with the murders of pizza parlour worker Marcus Doig and bank teller John Vaughan and a third is accused of the murder of Mr Vaughan.

The jury in the High Court at Auckland was told that Falealii, who is serving a 17-year sentence for the murders, would give evidence that he was recruited to clear a drug debt and taught how to use a gun for robbery.

Auckland Crown Solicitor Simon Moore told the jury the men who sent the teenager on his murderous rampage were as guilty as Falealii.

On trial are Joseph Sam Samoa, 28, of Mangere, William Logan Johansson, 27, of Otara, Pago Savaiinaea, 27, of Otara, and Kenneth Edward Kitiseni, 33, of Manurewa.

In his opening address, Mr Moore told of a spate of 12 armed robberies, culminating in the murder of 23-year-old Mr Doig at the Pakuranga Pizza Delivery Company and the attempted murder of the pizza parlour owner, John Bell, on May 8 last year, and the murder of Mangere Bridge ASB teller John Vaughan a week later.

Samoa and Johansson are charged with both murders and the attempted murder. Savaiinaea is accused of being involved in the murder of Mr Vaughan.

Mr Moore told the jury that Falealii "will explain how he was instructed in the arts of aggravated and armed robbery".

He was shown how to load a gun, work it and fire it.

He was told he had to swear a lot, be threatening and menacing, point the weapon at people's heads and act "like you really mean business", Mr Moore said.

Falealii was high on pure methamphetamine, or P, to give himself "dutch courage".

Mr Moore said Falealii had been selling P for Samoa when he was stood over and robbed of a couple of hundred dollars.

He was told he would have to clear the debt by committing robberies.

The first three robberies had involved Kitiseni, but after his arrest in March last year the "masterminds", Samoa and Johansson, needed a replacement and "that was where Falealii came in".

From then, with one exception, they changed their system.

Instead of carrying the risk by doing the robberies themselves, they got Falealii to go in as the gunman.

Falealii "fronted" and took the risk while Samoa and Johansson were the brains behind the operation and provided logistical support.

They drove him to and from the robberies, gave him the gun, targeted the premises to hit, helped Falealii disguise himself, told him how to carry out the robberies and told him of the best escape routes.

Mr Moore said that Falealii's first robbery, at the East Tamaki TAB in December 2001, almost failed when he lost his nerve. But he went back in and stole just under $500.

Afterwards he and some of the others smoked P to celebrate, something Mr Moore said was to become something of a pattern.

He said Falealii, Samoa and Johansson made heavy use of P.

"It was common, if not usual, for them to use the drug before Falealii went in to do these robberies."

The jury would hear of the taking of P to give Falealii confidence and a sense of "invincibility" when he went off to do a robbery with the .22 cut-down semi-automatic rifle that he was given.

Frequently they celebrated afterwards by taking the drug, laughing and joking about the shots that Falealii had fired.

Falealii never got anything like a full share of the proceeds.

Mr Moore described how Falealii shot Mr Doig and Mr Vaughan in the head.

"Marcus Doig was shot at close range and his killer, at the time he shot him, already had the money."

It was a senseless, unprovoked killing of an utterly innocent young man.

Exactly a week later, bank teller Mr Vaughan was killed.

Mr Moore said that Mr Vaughan was co-operating with Falealii, as he had been trained to do, his arms raised in surrender.

He too was shot when Falealii already had the money.

As the police were closing the net, Falealii's mother recognised her son from a front-page picture in the Herald.

Courageously and responsibly, she contacted the police to tell them of her awful suspicions.

Mr Moore said the level of violence escalated as Falealii showed himself willing to fire the weapon.

He told the jury that by the time it came to the pizza robbery, it would have been obvious to anyone involved with Falealii that he was dangerous and unpredictable.

"There had been several near misses but they were prepared to arm him yet again to send him out to do their business."

Mr Bell would tell how his young pizza parlour employee was shot.

Falealii then turned his attention to Mr Bell, firing two shots as Mr Bell crawled to safety.

Falealii would say that afterwards Samoa and Johansson seemed pleased when he said he had shot someone. They allegedly told him they had tried to rob the place before but had been foiled by Mr Bell.

The trial, before Justice Tony Randerson, continues today.