Businesswoman run down chasing thief, court told

Joanne Wang died after being hit by a car on June 16 2008. Photo / Supplied

A businesswoman was run down and killed after she chased a thief who allegedly snatched her handbag from her and then struck her with a stolen car as he tried to escape, a court has heard.

The Crown alleges Christopher Jacob Junior Shadrock, 23, murdered Auckland woman Joanne Wang, 39, on June 16, 2008 when he acclerated forward into her "without hesitating and without swerving".

Ms Wang was walking towards her car in the Westfield mall in Manukau with her 8 year-old boy Edmund when Shadrock allegedly snatched her handbag, containing a large sum of cash, away from her.

Opening the case for the Crown at the High Court at Auckland today, prosecutor Christine Gordon SC said Shadrock hadn't counted on Ms Wang's bravery and she chased after him, yelling, while he leapt into a stolen Nissan Regulus and began reversing quickly.

Another car came into the car park, blocking him in, so Shadrock accelerated forward and struck Ms Wang who was on the passenger side of the bonnet and was holding onto a wing mirror.

Ms Gordon said Ms Wang was flung off the car and hit the hard tarmac causing critical brain injuries she died from the next day.

Her son Edmund witnessed the incident from the family's van parked nearby

Five others are on trial for charges relating to Ms Wang's death.

Vila Lemanu, 25, Maka Tuikolovatu, 21, and Lionel Manaaki Tekanawa, 23, are charged with stealing Ms Wang's handbag.

Tuikolovatu is also charged assisting Shadrock avoid arrest by hiding the handbag and being an accessory after the fact to murder.

Tekanawa, Lemanu, Mateni Lynch, 20, and Terence Tere, 22, are accused of being an accessory after the fact to murder for allegedly burning the Nissan Regulus used in the hit and run.

Ms Gordon said they had been circling the carpark in two different cars waiting to snatch a handbag.

Ms Wang's routine had been interrupted because her brother was visiting from the United States so she was not usually at the mall in the middle of the afternoon.

She spoke to her husband before visiting the mall and told him she planned to see her brother soon.

He never heard from her after that, because it "wasn't any other day and there were thieves in the carpark waiting to strike," Ms Gordon said.

The trial is expected to last four weeks.