The lawyer acting for one of double murderer Ese Junior Falealii's alleged accomplices told a jury in the High Court at Auckland yesterday that no one was supposed to get hurt.
Joseph Sam Samoa has admitted taking part in the robbery of the Pakuranga Pizza Delivery Company in May last year,
but defence counsel Ron Mansfield said Falealii deviated from the plan when he shot part-time worker Marcus Doig in the head.
The plan, he said, was for the .22 rifle to be used to threaten, or as a last resort a shot could be fired into the air.
Mr Mansfield said there had been a pact not to harm anyone.
The bullets had earlier been removed from the gun and Samoa did not know that the weapon had been reloaded, he said.
Falealii, who is serving life having pleaded guilty to both murders, told the jury that he had been instructed to shoot the "old guy' in the pizza parlour if he tried to close the till, a claim which Mr Mansfield rubbished as "defying common sense".
Falealii, he said, was not a puppet or slave and his story about getting involved in the robberies to pay off a $200 drug debt to Samoa was another of his lies.
Samoa, 28, of Mangere and Johansson, 27, of Otara, are accused of being involved in the murder of Mr Doig and the attempted murder of the Pakuranga pizza parlour owner, John Wilfred Bell.
They are also accused, with Pago Savaiinaea, 27, of Otara, of the murder of Mr Vaughan.
Samoa faces five charges of aggravated robbery, having pleaded guilty to four others at the start of the case and another one during the trial, including the robbery of the pizza parlour.
Johansson faces four aggravated robbery charges, having pleaded guilty at the conclusion of the Crown case to eight others.
Savaiinaea faces three robbery counts.
A fourth man, Kenneth Edward Kitiseni, 33, of Manurewa, faces three aggravated robbery counts.
