Connor Morris trial: 'The fight escalated within seconds'

Connor Morris was killed in August 3 last year. Photo / Facebook

The trial for Connor Morris' alleged murderer has been adjourned for the day.

A juror has an urgent medical appointment and Justice Edwin Wylie has called an early finish to the day's proceedings.

Just before the break was called the jury heard from Shamus Wira, the cousin of Jason Teiho whose 21st was being held at 403c Don Buck Rd the night Mr Morris died.

He was driven to the party by his partner Luya Kariauria, who gave evidence earlier this morning.

Mr Wira told the court he was drinking vodka and cans of Cody's bourbon each with an alcohol content of eight per cent. He had consumed several cans on the way to the party.

By the time the party moved to the drive way he said he was "pretty drunk".

The party moved because there had been a bit of a scuffle after Mr Morunga, his cousin, playing up.

Chris Morris, father of Connor Morris at the Auckland High Court. Photo / Jason Oxenham

When they got to the top of the driveway Mr Wira saw Murray, also his cousin. He went inside Murray's house to say hello to his young daughters.

He said Murray was drinking but not drunk.

"We were the drunk ones, we were the ones partying... he seemed all good," he told the court.

He said he was getting ready to leave the party when Mr Morunga started "playing up again".

"He was just being a drunk c**t so I whacked him, gave him a punch in the head," Mr Wira said.

"I was talking to Mike and I turned around and saw three people walking down the road towards us... not long after that I spun around and Trev had kicked one of them, out of nowhere.

"I went to go and grab him but it had already kicked off by then, the fight had already started."

Mr Wira said the fight escalated within seconds.

One of the men from the other group "gapped it up the road" to get back up and Mr Morunga "lost the plot".

Michael Murray (R) is accused of murdering Connor Morris. Photo / Jason Oxenham

"It happened all so fast. I remember people running down, and the cars arriving... amongst that I was trying to grab Trev and pull him back. But let him go, he was being a stupid c**t... then we got rushed," he recalled.

Mr Wira saw his Ms Kariauria leaving the scene in her car and tried to followed her. He was already having "an altrercation" with four men, which carried on down the street towards the Gull station where his girlfriend had pulled over.

He did not see what was happening in the main brawl up near 403c Don Buck Rd.

"I just saw heaps of people sprawled out on the road fighting. I kept catching glimpses," he said.

He got to Ms Kariauria's car and said "she wasn't too happy" with him.

He wanted to leave, but the police arrived seconds later and he was "jumped on" and arrested.

"The last time I saw Mike (Murray) was straight after Trev (Morunga) kicked those dudes... I didn't see anyone after that because it was pretty much just me down by the roundabout scrapping with them, for ages before the pigs came."

Mr Wira told the court he was "hyped" and drunk and angry that the fight had started.

"I was pretty f****d off at Trev... it could have been prevented," he said.

In cross examination defence lawyer Marie Dyhrberg put to Mr Wira that he did not want any trouble, he merely wanted to stop Mr Morunga.

He agreed and said he and Murray were upset that Mr Morunga was "being a clown".

"You knew there was going to be a fight on, you knew there was going to be trouble and you knew you were outnumbered," she said.

"You got dropped a couple of times didn't you? You knew there was just too many of them and you knew you were going to be beaten."

"It all happened quite quickly"

Earlier today the jury heard evidence from a woman who attended the 21st birthday.

Luya Kariauria and her partner of Shamus Wira attended Jason Teiho's 21st at his sister Iesha's home 403c Don Buck Rd.

They arrived at the party just after 8pm.

She said the party was "just beginning" and was "quite passive, placid" with people drinking, "merrymaking" and mingling.

Ms Kariauria was driving that night so only had a few alcoholic drinks.

Ms Kariauria said Murray was among those at the driveway gathering.

"It wasn't really my scene... I was in the background... I kept to myself, I was actually bored," she said.

She'd only had a few cans of Smirnoff pre-mixed vodka as she is "not a heavy drinker". She was relatively sober when the group relocated to the driveway.

She told the court that she saw Murray drink alcohol in the driveway but said she did not recall him drinking "a lot" or what he was consuming. Others were intoxicated.

"I didn't see him as being intoxicated from where I was standing," she said.

Others were much more affected by booze, including her partner Mr Wira.

At one stage Ms Kariauria walked to Gull petrol station across the road from the party and got a pie which she then ate it in her car, parked in Miss Teiho's driveway.

She said at that stage she wanted to leave the party but had no credit on her phone to contact anyone. She went back to Gull to purchase a top up card for her phone.

While at the petrol station 12.13am someone told her "something" had happened outside the party.

She was initially worried about her car, which she had only purchased the week before, and started to run to the driveway.

Ms Kariauria heard yelling and could see a commotion on the grass verge near the driveway of 403c Don Buck Rd.

Ms Kariauria said there were a lot of people in the street, "too many to count".

"They were having a big fight... I saw a lot of people having a big scrap together," she said.

She got to her car and there were four people standing near it, one a man taking photos of her number plate. He was wearing a "biker jacket" and wore a red t-shirt underneath with a Head Hunters gang logo.

The people near the car were placid and calm, and not part of the fracas on the road.

"I told him I had nothing to do with hit.... And then I got in my car and I took off," she said.

Mr Wira saw her leaving and tried to stop her. She said he was "quite hostile" and she pulled into the Gull station, thinking she could get him to leave with her.

"...he was aggravated and angry because he could see there was a big fight happening... I think he wanted to go and join, to help out. But then the police arrived.

He grabbed Ms Kariauria's keys from the car.

"He was highly intoxicated and I could tell that he was wanting to go back. And that's when the police arrived."

Shortly after police arrived Mr Wira was arrested by police.

"It all happened quite quickly," Ms Kariauria told the court.

Mr Wira will now give his evidence.

"I kicked him and that's what started the whole fight"

Trevor Morunga, 18, has spoken about what led to the fatal fight and seeing the accused hit another man with a long stick-like weapon during the violent incident.

This morning during his testimony Mr Morunga told the court he lived at 403c Don Buck Rd with his sister Iesha Teiho.

Mr Morunga started drinking at 7pm on the night of August 2 and said he had consumed "quite a bit".

"I was pretty drunk," he told the court.

Yesterday the court heard that the party had become increasingly aggressive, fights had broken out and Miss Teiho had "shut it down".

She told Mr Morunga, Mr Teiho and cousin Shamus Wira to leave and they went to the top of the driveway.

He said today that at the time "I couldn't really handle the liquor".

When the group got to the top of the driveway Murray, who lived in a sleepout on the same property, was there with a few other people. Murray had not been at the 21st but his younger brother Stan had attended.

Mr Morunga said the group were "just having a few beers and talking... at the top of the driveway".

He said he did not remember how many beers he had but the group were drinking there for several hours.

He said he was "amped up" and on a scale of one to 10 of intoxication he was "an eight".

A group of men walked past and Mr Morunga lashed out.

"Not blaming the alcohol but I was too drunk, being an idiot I guess... I kicked someone in the head," he said.

The other group had been at a party nearby - a housewarming for Mr Morris sister Cymmion. They were walking to a shop to buy pineapple juice.

Mr Morunga said the men said hello and he went to shake one of their hands - but he booted the man instead.

"I was just being an egg, being an idiot. I made a stupid decision. I kicked him and that's what started the whole fight... he ran off and said he was going to come back with some 88s or something."

88s are another name for Head Hunters gang members. H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.

"They ended up coming back with a few boys. I think Mike (Murray) was telling me to go sort it out because he didn't want any trouble around his house, he had all his kids there," Mr Morunga said.

He did not remember what happened next, just that there was a "big fight".

The other group returned, Mr Morris amongst them.

Mr Morunga began walking towards them but told the court he could not remember what his intentions were at the time.

"There was quite a few of them... about eight or so," he recalled.

Mr Wira and Mr Teiho were with him when he approached the other group on the street.

"I think we all started fighting. I remember it as flashbacks, as pictures. I don't remember how the fight went," Mr Morunga told the court.

He saw Mr Wira get hit and fall to the ground and said he "got a few whacks to the face" himself. He also saw his brother being "beaten up".

During the fracas Mr Morunga saw Murray with a weapon.

"I could see him out the corner of my eye. I seen he had a weapon... he had used it on someone. I think he was just trying to protect his brother or something.

"It just looked like a stick to me, a bamboo stick... about a metre long. I didn't know who he was fighting.

He saw someone "knocked out on the ground" and said the person was "unconscious"

Mr Morunga did not have weapon himself, nor did he see any others being used in the
street fight.

"I don't remember seeing Mike after that I think he had grabbed his brother and ran, I guess. He went home I think.

He had not seen Stan Murray for some time but "guessed" that was who Murray was pulling away from the fight.

After that, the fight carried on for several minutes.

"I was fighting some other people and I looked over... I saw my brother... I think he was getting beat up again, he was trying to run away... I ran over to help him up... And then I heard the police coming so I took off home."

Mr Morunga struggled to recall the sequence of events from the fight. He said when he gave a statement to police his "head wasn't really clear" and he could not remember much.

However he was clear in that he saw Murray strike another man with a weapon during the fight. And, that man fell to the ground.

Throughout the evidence Murray sat looking forward, not reacting or showing any emotion.

Mr Morris parents Chris and Julie were in court this morning and sat in the front row listening to the evidence. Their daughter Cymmion was with them. They were supported in court by a small group of family and friends including Reuben Holmes, the brother of Mr Morris' partner Millie Elder-Holmes.

Ms Elder-Holmes has been excluded from attending court by Justice Edwin Wylie until after she has given evidence. She is expected to take the stand for the Crown on Thursday.

WHO'S WHO?

THE 21ST PARTY AT 403 DON BUCK RD
• Held by Iesha Teiho for her brother's 21st birthday at her home
• Trevor Morunga, brother of Iesha Teiho, 17 at the time of the alleged murder and started the street fight by kicking a member of another group walking past the house
• Shamus Wira, cousin of Iesha Teiho, Trevor Morunga and the accused, was involved in the brawl but further down the street from where Mr Morris was fatally wounded, first to be arrested when police arrived at the scene
• Luya Kariauria, partner of Mr Wira, attended the party but was at the petrol station getting a phone top up card when the brawl began and took off in her car soon after
• Stan Murray, the brother of the accused who was at the 21st

THE HOUSEWARMING PARTY AT 425 DON BUCK RD
• Held by Cymmion Morris, sister of the victim -attended by Connor Morris and his girlfriend Millie Elder-Holmes and parents Chris and Julie Morris.
• Chris and Connor Morris were patched members of the Head Hunters gang, and other members were also at the party.

THE ACCUSED
• Micheal Thrift Murray, who lived in a sleepout at the same property at Miss Teiho. The court heard that he did not attend the party but came out when it broke up to see his brother Stan.

THE CROWN
• David Johnstone: prosecutor for Meredith Connell. A highly experience trial lawyer who specialises in drug and gang-related crime. Among his most notable prosecutions are the murder trial of Grenville Fahey a homeless man who stabbed another to death in Myers Park and New Zealand's largest case on ecstasy substitutes, involving Class B and C controlled drug importing and selling worth over $30 million, 10 defendants, and an 18-week trial.

• Sam McMullan: a prosecutor at Meredith Connell who is assisting Mr Johnstone. Mr McMullan graduated with a law degree from Victoria University in 2010 with first class honours. He has worked part-time for the Law Commission and has clerked for Justices Wild and Dobson and Associate Justice Gendall.

THE DEFENCE
• Marie Dyhrberg QC - one of the country's most experience defence lawyers. She defended John Skinner who murdered undercover cop Sergeant Don Wilkinson, the well-known comedian who performed an indecent act on his daughter and Teina Pora at his retrial for the murder of Susan Burdett. She also represented the Kahui twins mother Macsyne King at the Coroner's inquest into their 2006 deaths.

JUSTICE EDWIN WYLIE
• Justice Wylie graduated from the University of Canterbury in 1975 with a law degree with first class honours. He went on to complete his PhD in Administrative Law from University of Cambridge in 1980. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2002 and a Judge in 2008 and is based in Auckland. High profile cases he has presided over include the trial of former Auckland Mayor John Banks