As a friend barged into Alan Gundry's home and threatened his partner and dinner guests, the pig-hunter grabbed his rifle and said he'd had enough, a murder trial was told yesterday.
Moments later Orewa man Gene Patrick Atkins was dead, shot in the abdomen and liver.
The Crown alleges Gundry, 30, murdered Mr Atkins, 28, on January 12 at Gundry's Rodney home. The shooting happened after Mr Atkins fought with a guest as he tried to get to his partner, Sarah Jane Dean, who he had been fighting with that night.
The court heard that Mr Atkins had been drinking beer on the deck but left abruptly after exchanging words with Ms Dean. She followed him and found her belongings, including a photo of her dead brother, had been ripped off the wall and thrown on the driveway.
When she told him she was going to leave, Mr Atkins kicked her car headlights and tried to punch her. She drove back to Gundry's house and asked if she could stay the night.
About 10 minutes later Atkins arrived. Another man got in between the couple and Mr Atkins said: "You're going to try and protect her", before fighting with him on the lawn.
Ms Deans went inside and heard her partner say, "where is she, where is she". He went inside and met Gundry's partner, Nicole McDonald, on the stairwell. He was said to have wedged her against the stairwell to the extent she thought she would fall.
Ms Dean locked herself in the bathroom, opening it when she heard a knock at the door. She told prosecutor Kevin Glubb at the High Court at Auckland yesterday that Gundry was standing there."He said that he'd had enough ... That he wasn't going to have it in his house."
She said as Gundry spoke to her he reached for a gun and began to load it.
"I said you're only going to scare him eh?" There was no reply and soon after she heard two shots.
Gundry then appeared and said "I'm sorry, I'm sorry". She went outside and found Mr Atkins lying on the concrete. She closed his eyes, covered him with a blanket and held his hand before checking him for a pulse. There wasn't one.
Mr Glubb said the shooting was a "deliberate, excessive response" and the unacceptable consequence of "a bout of drinking" on what had been a happy, social gathering. He said Gundry deliberately loaded the gun, confronted him and shot him. "Given the circumstances was that a reasonable use of force?" he asked.
The Crown case was he could have found a less violent way to control the situation.
"The accused fired. One shot struck him in the right side of the abdomen and passed directly through the body exiting near the waistband and being embedded in the woodwork of the staircase."
The second bullet "shattered" his sternum, went through his liver, before lodging just under the skin on his back.
Mr Glubb said Gundry phoned police after the shooting and said his friend had gone crazy and he had shot him.
Defence lawyer Graeme Newell asked Ms Dean about violent episodes Mr Atkins had in the past.
At the time of his death he was waiting trial on a wounding with intent charge stemming from an incident in a bar. Another time she hid in some long grass for 8 hours after he threatened her with a fishing spear gun.
He told the court self-defence would be a key issue during the trial and that self-defence was a complete defence to the charge of murder.
The trial is expected to last all week.
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