One person was taken into custody following a serious incident at Lakewood Plaza, Manukau on September 3, 2022. Video / Hayden Woodward
An Auckland woman accused of having inflicted 94 stab wounds upon her neighbour - including some believed to have been administered after the neighbour died - has told a jury she’s not guilty of murder, with her lawyers saying it was an act of self-defence.
Susana Makerita Leota-Lu, 37, whohad name suppression until today, was arrested in the early morning hours of September 3 last year after police responded to a frantic call from another neighbour who had heard screaming and another woman calling for help.
“Ms Leota-Lu was effectively caught red-handed,” Crown prosecutor Anna Devathasan told jurors in the High Court at Auckland this afternoon during her opening address, explaining that there were still two knives in victim Samantha Bridgette Antoinetta Whitehouse’s body when officers arrived at the bloody scene on the seventh floor of Lakewood Plaza - Manukau’s largest residential high-rise.
“I won’t lie to you. There’s a body in there,” Leota-Lu is alleged to have said after trying unsuccessfully to dissuade officers from coming inside.
In her pockets, police found two more bloody knives and Whitehouse’s cellphone, prosecutors said.
Jurors were also told today that Leota-Lu formerly lived in Australia, where she was convicted in 2018 after a non-fatal knife attack on a roommate.
At the South Auckland high-rise, the defendant and Whitehouse, who lived on the first floor, knew each other only in passing, prosecutors said today. But they ran into each other on the afternoon before the killing and ended up spending the evening with one another - at one point smoking methamphetamine together and getting into an argument about Leota-Lu’s missing phone, jurors were told.
The two were seen on CCTV returning to Leota-Lu’s apartment around 9pm. Early the next morning, the neighbour heard yelling and threatened through the closed apartment door to call police.
“Don’t call the cops,” Leota-Lu is alleged to have responded, telling the neighbour she had someone in there who had stolen money from her. But after hearing another voice cry out for help, the neighbour called 111 at 4.04am and police were at Leota-Lu’s door at 4.17am.
Susana Leota-Lu appears in the High Court at Auckland, accused of the September 2022 murder of neighbour Samantha Whitehouse. Leota-Lu admitted she inflicted dozens of stab wounds, but said it was in self-defence. Photo / Dean Purcell
Leota-Lu initially told officers that she “did it” and that Whitehouse “deserves it”, prosecutors said.
“That’s what happens when you f*** wth my family,” she is alleged to have said.
She also showed police a cut on her arm and on her finger, which she initially told police she had done to herself, Devathasan said. But as the morning progressed, she began using the words “self-defence” over and over, even though the details she gave still didn’t fit the legal definition of self-defence, the prosecutor said.
In a recorded police interview, she said the injuries had been caused by Whitehouse. The two had got into a scuffle and Whitehouse had fallen on top of her and was trying to stab her, but Leota-Lu got the upper hand and began stabbing in self-defence, she said in the interview.
But she also said during some points of the interview that she had stopped Whitehouse from trying to leave the apartment and that Whitehouse had picked up the knife and said, “Stay away from me.”
In addition, Devathasan said, blood spatter indicates Whitehouse was attacked in different parts of the apartment - possibly over a long period. The knife wounds to Whitehouse’s body after she died and the large size differential - Leota-Lu weighed twice as much as the other woman - should also be factored in when considering a claim of self-defence, she said.
“These things do not sound like self-defence,” Devathasan said. “This was aggression. This was a violent, rageful murder.”
A police presence remained outside the Lakewood Plaza apartment complex on Lakewood Court, Manukau, on September 3, 2022, where a woman died. Photo / Tom Dillane
As is always the case, the defence was allowed to give only a brief statement to the jury, but will have an opportunity to speak to jurors again after the Crown finishes presenting evidence.
Lawyer Kim Holden noted her client was still under the influence of methamphetamine when she gave the recorded police interview and was still suffering the trauma of what had just occurred, which helps to understand her inconsistencies.
“There is a defence to this case,” she said, indicating that Whitehouse was the initial aggressor. “Ms Leota-Lu was acting in self-defence when she inflicted those injuries.”
The trial continues before Justice Jane Anderson and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
