A homicide investigation is under way at an Auckland restaurant following a man’s death in the early hours of this morning. Video / NZ Herald
Christopher Tean Salt’s murder trial has begun in Auckland, following a fatal attack on Tofimua Matagi.
Confronting CCTV footage showed Salt throwing a coward punch followed by repeated stomps to Matagi’s head.
Salt’s lawyers are seeking a manslaughter conviction, saying their client did not intend to kill.
A seemingly jovial game of darts between two men who had just met inside a Mt Roskill bar took a dark turn when Christopher Tean Salt threw a coward punch as his opponent concentrated on the board, causing the unsuspecting victim to crumple to the ground. Salt then kicked him in the face and repeatedly stomped on his head.
Graphic CCTV footage of the attack was played for jurors yesterday afternoon in the High Court at Auckland as Salt’s murder trial began.
In the footage, which spanned about two hours, victim Tofimua Oneonepata Matagi, 25, never moved again of his own accord after the final head stomp. After rifling through Matagi’s clothes and turning him onto his side, Salt, 36, continued the darts game on his own.
He then left to the adjoining smoking area of Richardson’s Bar and Restaurant, returning several times to look at the motionless body but never seeking help.
Crown prosecutor Taniela-Afu Veikune told jurors during his opening address that the CCTV footage would be “crucial” to their understanding of what happened. But the trial would be a little unusual, he said, because the focus wouldn’t be on if Salt did it – the defendant has already acknowledged that it was him caught on tape administering the beating – but instead on what he was thinking as he did it.
Salt will be guilty of murder if jurors determine he was attempting to inflict grievous bodily injury to facilitate a robbery. He could also be found guilty of murder if jurors determine he knew that he was likely to cause death while inflicting the injuries on Matagi and decided to take that risk anyway.
A CCTV still from Richardson’s Bar and Restaurant in Mt Roskill, Auckland, shows Christopher Salt (left) and Tofimua Matagi playing darts together shortly before Salt launched a fatal assault.
During her own brief opening statement, defence lawyer Emma Priest said jurors would have a third option: finding her client guilty instead of manslaughter. She encouraged them to do so.
“He thought it was just a fight – that [Matagi] would wake up and it would be okay,” Priest said. “He was shocked that Mr Matagi died but takes responsibility for his death.”
Matagi had returned to New Zealand just months before the August 31, 2023, attack after having previously lived in Australia and Niue. He had got a job as a labourer and decided to go out with two workmates that night. A keen darts player who would enter competitions, it’s no surprise he ended up in the bar’s game room, prosecutors said.
“Mr Matagi had never met Mr Salt before, but that night he decides to play darts with Mr Salt,” Veikune said. “Mr Matagi has his wallet out at one point and holds his phone.
“They’re laughing. It seems jovial. They even exchange numbers at one point.”
But then, “seemingly out of nowhere the game goes south”, Veikune said.
A further CCTV still shows Christopher Salt taking a swing at Tofimua Matagi while the victim wasn't looking. Salt is on trial for murder in the High Court at Auckland, but his lawyer has asked jurors to instead find him guilty of manslaughter.
The CCTV, which has no audio, showed Matagi appearing to laugh just before 11pm followed by a brief disagreement in which Salt approached him and Matagi raised his arm in a seemingly placating manner. Matagi then turned to complete his next dart throw when Salt blindsided him with the punch, causing him to fall to the floor immediately.
In the blows that followed, Salt could be seen raising his knee to his chest as he repeatedly stomped.
Matagi was pronounced dead after he was wheeled into an ambulance around 1am. In the meantime, his stolen bank card had been used several times to buy drinks for others who milled about with Salt in the smoking area outside the room.
Although Salt took the victim’s wallet after the attack, robbery was never his intention for striking out, the defence told jurors. Priest noted her client later returned the wallet to the unconscious man, and that it was another bar patron who ended up using the bank card to buy drinks. She also noted Salt was seen on video rolling Matagi onto his side, which she described as a “recovery position”.
Tofimua Matagi, 25, died after an incident at a bar and restaurant in Mt Roskill, Auckland, on August 31, 2023.
Even though he wasn’t moving, Matagi could be heard breathing in a snoring-like manner, the defence lawyer said.
“You see a number of people check on him and do nothing,” she said, suggesting that no one – her client included – realised the severity of the situation. She noted her client didn’t leave the bar until after the ambulance arrived – not the actions, she suggested, of a person whose intent was to kill.
Testimony is set to resume today before Justice Michael Robinson and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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