Escalating anger and an obsession with payback: Why Adrian Phillips murdered Bayden Williams

Adrian Reginald George Phillips in the High Court at Hamilton during his trial for the murder of Bayden Williams. Phillips was found guilty by a jury. Photo / Mike Scott

Adrian Phillips' fixation with Bayden Williams revealed itself in the weeks before he murdered the young father.

Phillips had held a grudge against Williams since the younger man put him in a headlock and held him down during an altercation seven months earlier.

The festering resentment toward Williams and his father Lance Williams spilled over in text messages Phillips sent days before the murder on August 5, 2020.

"Lance and Bayden will be sorry when I am done with them," he texted to his girlfriend's mother Paula Randall.

"We need to hear them out," Randall replied. "...I don't want you getting into trouble."

The altercation

Paula's husband Peter Randall was strangled by Lance during the altercation in Tairua in January 2020, when their daughter Chloe Randall tried to collect her belongings from the home she had shared with Bayden.

The young couple were splitting up and Chloe had returned to Thames with their baby son, to live with her parents.

Bayden Williams was 20 when he was shot dead by Adrian Phillips on the Kopu-Hikuai Rd near Thames on August 5, 2020. Photo / File

Phillips, who was dating Chloe's twin sister Macy, had been friends with Bayden Williams until that point.

He texted Randall back: "Me beating him up is nothing to do with your fam at all. It's personal between me and them now."

The exchange with Randall followed a Facebook post by Chloe on August 3 featuring a photo of her son and indicating she and Williams may be reuniting.

"Daddy came over to visit me today in my home! I loved it and I can tell Daddy loved it too."

It prompted Phillips to text Randall telling her the next time Williams came to Thames he wanted to know.

On the night of August 5, the partner of Chloe's older sister Paige messaged Phillips to tell him Williams was driving from Tairua for dinner.

Lance Williams said it had been distressing for family to hear in great detail how his son Bayden Williams was shot dead by Adrian Phillips. Photo / Natalie Akoorie

Phillips was sitting on a beach near Miranda preparing to smoke marijuana when he received the message.

He'd been contemplating suicide, as he had done for months after accidentally setting himself alight by pouring accelerant on a bonfire at New Year's in 2018.

After the explosion, which put Phillips in hospital requiring skin grafts on his left hand, the apprentice mechanic's mental health spiralled downward.

An angry man

But during his trial for murder in the High Court at Hamilton in June, the Crown said Phillips was a man quick to anger who was exploding into daily fits of rage at those around him.

He told his doctor he thought about driving random people off the road, and according to Macy he was "angry with an anger that never stopped".

In one "explosion" of anger, Phillips assaulted Macy after she held a lighter in front of his face to stop him driving recklessly with her in the car.

In response he put his thumb inside her mouth, pushed her head onto the passenger window so hard the inside of her cheek tore, and then punched her arm.

"...anyone who crosses me can deal with psycho me", Phillips messaged a mate after a falling out with his landlord.

He bought a sawn-off shotgun from friend Jono Taylor, cleaned up the rusted gun and got it working, firing off six rounds.

"It was mean and threw huge sparks. Wickard eh, just needs a holster," he messaged Taylor.

Phillips said he bought the gun for hunting but on August 2 he messaged Taylor again, asking where the best place was to buy a balaclava.

When asked why, he responded: "Balaclavas are handy as, eh cuz".

Adrian Phillips was bullied at school for being overweight and having red hair. He got into trouble at high school for fighting. Photo / File

In a discussion about long-barrelled guns, Phillips messaged Taylor: "Long barrel for long shot and sawn-off for 'being nato'."

He sent a photo on Snapchat of the gun in the wheel well of his car with ammunition nearby and implied he intended to attack Williams.

Phillips went on and off anti-depressant medication and eventually quit his job, where he had become somewhat of a joke after setting himself alight.

He banged his head against walls, smoked cannabis daily to relieve his anxiety, and regularly thought about suicide.

In his mind he was the victim, the boy who was bullied at school for being overweight and having red hair.

But in reality, it was Phillips' own inadequacies and failings that weighed him down.

The defence said Phillips was not some kind of "Rambo" but rather more like "Big Ted".

However, the Crown described Phillips as being "embarrassed, humiliated and emasculated" by Williams putting him in a headlock and holding him down the day of the altercation.

And as the months went on, Phillips made Williams the target of his anger, obsessing about making his former friend pay.

The night of the murder

It was against this backdrop that Phillips received the message telling him Williams was on his way to tea at Chloe's house.

Phillips got in his ute and drove up the winding, isolated Kopu-Hikuai Rd.

He sent Taylor a Snapchat image of the shotgun on the passenger seat next to a splitting axe.

The friend replied "true cuz, you going over there", and Phillips replied with a similar photo saying he was "going to try and have some fun with [Bayden]".

Williams knew Phillips was making threats against him. He and Chloe had arranged to park his car elsewhere that night so that Phillips wouldn't know he was in town.

But what Williams could not have foreseen was Phillips' ambush on State Highway 25a.

Like a scene from a Hollywood movie, Phillips spun his ute around when he saw Williams' distinctive Jaguar drive past, beginning a cat and mouse chase that would have Phillips tailgating Williams and high-beaming his headlights.

The pair drove erratically on the deserted road in the dark, crossing the centreline as Williams tried to escape Phillips.

At a corner where Williams braked, Phillips rammed the Jaguar and it spun off the road and down a steep bank backward.

Both men got out of their cars with Phillips going back to grab his then unloaded shotgun for "protection" - he believed Williams always carried a knife.

He told the jury Williams charged up the bank yelling: "I'll f***en cut you up. I'll f***en kill you", although it was later discovered Williams only had a pocket knife on him.

Phillips said he loaded the gun, fired a warning shot into the ground and when Williams kept coming he shot him, not once, not twice but three times.

First in the thigh, then in the shoulder and finally in the head, immediately ending Williams' life.

The evidence

But the evidence painted a different picture, and the jury did not believe Phillips' version of events.

It was physically implausible that Williams could keep charging up the bank at speed with a wounded thigh.

A scene examination showed he was crouching in front of his car when he was blasted in the shoulder, because bits of tissue and clothing matching his hoodie were found on the car bonnet.

The fatal shot to the head was fired at almost point blank range at the top of the bank.

The Crown said an injured Williams had staggered up there to wave down help, but encountered Phillips a final time.

After killing Williams, Phillips dragged his body down to the Jaguar, covered him with a jersey "because I didn't want to look", threw away the gun casings, and fled the scene.

He texted his friend "I'm in big trouble cuz help asap". He instructed that messages from earlier in the night be deleted.

On the way home he threw away the gun and the rest of the ammunition and called Macy.

At home he confessed his crime, then showered while she called the police.

When asked by police in an interview why he shot Williams, Phillips answered: "F*** all made me do it".