Armed police pictured at a cordon at the entrance to Ormsby Lane in the Kaimai Ranges, west of Tauranga. Photo / File
Armed police pictured at a cordon at the entrance to Ormsby Lane in the Kaimai Ranges, west of Tauranga. Photo / File
A witness in a double murder trial has described seeing two armed men "ruthlessly" firing shots into a converted shed where he then found two victims "bleeding out".
Crown witness Daniel de Martin told the jury in the Tauranga High Court yesterday that one of the shooters then turned hisgun on him as he tried to run towards the shed.
Samuel Deane Fane, 26, has denied murdering Paul Lasslett, 43, and Nicholas Littlewood, 32, at Lasslett's Ormsby Lane property on February 11 last year.
The Crown alleges Samuel and his late brother Anthony Fane killed the two men after believing Lasslett and Anthony's partner, Jessie Lee Booth, were having an affair.
Booth was found dead at a Brookfield address on February 14, 2020 - the day after Anthony was shot dead by police.
Police believe Anthony killed her on or around February 9. The defence claims Anthony was solely responsible for the Ormsby Lane shootings two days later.
On that day, de Martin and his friend Littlewood were working at Lasslett's property, de Martin told the court on Monday.
He said Littlewood popped inside Lasslett's shed dwelling to say goodbye.
de Martin said before they left he asked Littlewood for the key to a little digger parked in one of the paddocks and drove his quad bike down to it.
"I had just started the digger when I noticed a blue Ford territory coming down Paul's driveway but did not think much about it as the gravel driveway goes up past his house."
de Martin said he heard gunfire ringing out.
"There was a hell of a lot of gunshots - possibly between 10 or 15 - and it was very quick, as fast as you could shoot a gun," he said.
de Martin said "five to 10 seconds later" he saw two men with their backs to him holding guns and "ruthlessly" firing into Lasslett's room.
He said one shooter was half inside the ranchslider and the other, holding a long barrel gun, was firing from outside with the tip of the firearm inside the room.
de Martin said he could not say what they were wearing.
"I yelled out 'no' at the top of my lungs and put my head down and sprinted towards the fence line aiming to get to Paul's room," he said.
de Martin said that as he neared the fence line, one of the shooters shot at him twice before both men "bolted" back towards the entrance gate to their Ford Territory.
He lost sight of the pair as they ran behind the house and as he ran towards Lasslett's room he heard a car startup and reverse away.
Sarah Tarei, 25, and her partner Samuel Fane, 26, are on trial in the Tauranga High Court. Photo / File
de Martin said he ran towards the back of Lasslett's tenant Alana Wingrove's house to see if Lasslett's gate was shut and either try to cut the car off or get the number plate.
"I saw the blue Ford Territory flying down Ormsby Lane as fast as it could in reverse."
He said the passenger was half hanging out of the window and "relentlessly" firing at him as they drove off.
de Martin said he hit the ground face-first. As he looked up, the car spun 180 degrees and drove forwards out of Ormsby Lane at high speed.
It was too dusty to make out the licence plate, he said.
He said after checking whether he had been hit, and that the car was gone, he ran to the shed.
"Just inside the ranchslider, Nick was lying face down on the ground and there was blood everywhere... I grabbed him and rolled him onto his right shoulder and I was yelling out his name as I saw his chest wounds, but he wasn't responsive."
"I tried to check Nick's pulse but my heart was beating so fast I couldn't find one."
de Martin also said he tried to stop the bleeding with some clothing off one of the couches and also checked on Lasslett.
"Paul was lying face down parallel next to the couch he had been sitting on talking to Nick, and he looked like he had slumped off the couch after being shot.
"I moved him slightly and tried to get him to respond to me as well and yelled out his name a couple of times... But I could not get him to respond."
de Martin said he called out to Wingrove to come down and dialled 111 for an ambulance and it felt "like forever" as he kept asking how long the ambulance would take.
Both men were "bleeding out", as he ran in and out of Paul's dwelling to check whether the shooters were going to return.
"I thought I was a sitting duck and they were going to come back and kill me."
de Martin said the St John dispatcher kept telling him to keep calm and wait but the blood was "too much", so he headed to a neighbouring property to ask for help from an off-duty nurse.
The first police officers arrived while he was still holding Littlewood, he said.
During cross-examination by Fanes's lawyer Simon Lance, de Martin confirmed he had refused more than once to provide a formal written statement to the police.
He said he was in deep shock, "scared for my life" and "too shaken up" to do so at first.
The jury was told de Martin gave a videotaped interview to the police on March 9, 2020.
Lance put to de Martin that his view of the alleged shooters must have been obscured given he estimated to police he was about 300 metres away.
de Martin disagreed.
Lance also suggested to de Martin that features of the shed would have hidden the human figures.
"Slightly but it was a lot closer [in distance] than you think," he insisted.
Lance also challenged de Martin about the number of shots he stated he heard and saw as he had estimated to police there were about "five to seven shots all up".
de Martin said all he knew was there were a "tremendous lot of shots in a very short space of time", both men were shooting into the room and one fired five to seven shots.
He rejected Lance's proposition that due to the elevation up to the dwelling he mistakenly assumed there were two shooters and he could not have seen the firearms.
"It's crystal clear in my head that there were two men with firearms and they are both firing... I'm also pretty sure I heard two more shots while I was running," he said.
