Mum tells court of daughter's abusive relationship with killer

A concerned and loving mother pleaded with her daughter to end a relationship with the man who would eventually take her life, a court has heard.

Chozyn Koroheke's mum, Nadine Koroheke, testified today during the High Court murder trial of Turiarangi Tai.

Tai shot Chozyn dead with a 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun at their Pakuranga Heights home in Auckland on April 4 last year.

Mum-of-two Chozyn Koroheke was killed on April 4 last year. Photo / Supplied

A jury will decide what the 23-year-old accused's motive was before convicting him of either murder of manslaughter, while a 25-year-old woman is also on trial for allegedly helping Tai evade police capture after the shooting.

"Are you afraid of him?" Nadine recalled asking her daughter of Tai, as she lay battered and bruised in hospital following another domestic incident.

Nadine was being questioned by Crown prosecutor Mark Williams about Chozyn and Tai's short but volatile relationship, which he has said included the 22-year-old woman being hit in the head with a rock and stabbed in the thigh.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nadine said her daughter replied.

"We can stop this right now," She told her daughter, one of thee children.

Alleged murderer Turiarangi Tai and a 25-year-old woman, accused of being an accessory after the fact, are on trial. Photo / Greg Bowker

Chozyn herself was a mother of two and Nadine said she'd been taking care of the kids since 2015.

"I struggled with her choices that she made," Nadine said of her daughter.

"Chozyn was stubborn and strong-headed, so what I had to say didn't really matter."

She said she would often argue with Chozyn about the types of men her daughter dated, including the father of her grandchildren.

Tai, she said, was "crazy" and had threatened to stab her daughter.

"'Don't say s*** like that to me, that you're going to stab my daughter' ... I was angry." Nadine recalled saying to Tai.

Chozyn's injuries were obvious, Nadine told the court.

"Black eyes, cuts to the face, and at one point her limping," she said.

However, under cross-examination by Tai's counsel Peter Kaye, she admitted Tai, at times, treated her daughter like a queen.

"She said, 'it's only when he's on the meth'," Nadine recalled her daughter telling her of the relationship.

Earlier in the trial, Williams said Chozyn's death was the result of a single gunshot wound to the right side of her abdomen at a distance of no more than 50cm.

He said it had come after an argument between the pair.

Tai initially aimed the gun at her head before shooting her in the gut, the prosecutor added.

The murder-accused then went on the run for nearly two weeks, Williams said, before eventually handing himself over to police.

He was charged and pleaded not guilty to Koroheke's murder but has pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm.

The trial before a jury and Justice Matthew Muir is likely to conclude this week.