Prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charges against Andrew Fausia and John Logo after Fausia’s younger brother, Alex Fausia,pleaded guilty to administering a fatal kick to the head of Adrian Selwyn in the carpark of an Epsom motel where Selwyn was living. The younger Fausia was handed a seven-year prison term in August.
But all three helped remove the victim’s body out of sight into his room, where he wouldn’t be found for a week. The incident came almost exactly 10 years after Andrew Fausia was involved in another homicide.
The discovery of Selwyn’s body at the Auckland Newmarket Motel last year was at first a mystery. But investigators quickly pieced together a narrative after viewing the motel’s carpark CCTV footage from about a week earlier.
Selwyn had asked to buy methamphetamine from Logo, who was recorded arriving at the motel in his orange Mazda Demio around 8pm on March 7, 2023. About 15 minutes later, Selwyn contacted Logo to complain about the drug’s poor quality. Logo responded by proposing a “one-on-one” fight, picking up the Fausia brothers before returning to the motel, court documents state.
“Come out,” Selwyn was texted as the trio arrived.
“Mr Selwyn approached Mr Logo, leaving a distance of about one metre between them,” court documents state. “Mr Logo quickly assumed a fighting stance and clenched his hands into fists. Mr Selwyn stood with his hands at his sides and does not appear from the footage to indicate he intended to fight Mr Logo.”
Adrian "Ajae" Selwyn was kicked in the head outside an Epsom motel in March 2023, then dragged to his room so no one would notice or help him.
But seconds into the conversation between Logo and Selwyn, the younger of the Fausia brothers delivered the kick to Selwyn’s head.
“Mr Selwyn, who did not see or anticipate the assault and therefore did nothing to protect himself, was immediately knocked unconscious and fell backwards, hitting the back of his head on the pavement,” documents state. “Mr Selwyn made no attempt to break his fall nor did either of the defendants.
“The group immediately approached Mr Selwyn and attempted to wake him.”
When he wouldn’t wake, the group took Selwyn to his room and left him on his bed before leaving in the same car. Selwyn’s family requested a welfare check from hotel staff a week later after not hearing from him, at which point his body was found.
His death was determined to have been the result of a brain bleed caused by blunt-force trauma to the head.
Homicide investigation, meth results
While investigating the death, police obtained text messages between Logo and the older Fausia brother indicating the two worked together in the meth trade. They messaged about orders on the day after Selwyn’s death, before his body had been found. They supplied at least 5g of methamphetamine that month, officers determined from their messages.
Police executed search warrants at their Mt Wellington, Ōtāhuhu and Glen Innes homes the following month.
In Logo’s home, officers found a satchel next to his bed containing 55g of meth packaged for sale. A further 8g was found on Logo, along with $5000 cash.
At Andrew Fausia’s home, police found 132g of methamphetamine and 15.7g of a substance commonly used by dealers to dilute the drug before sale. They also located three firearms, including two shotguns that were concealed near the drugs in the kitchen, as well as ammunition and $19,000 cash.
The younger Fausia brother was found to have an additional 432g of meth in a red shoe box at his home, along with nearly $17,000 cash and shotgun ammunition.
“In explanation for his actions when spoken to by police, Mr Logo acknowledged supplying methamphetamine to Mr Selwyn and being at the scene,” the agreed summary of facts for the case states. “He stated he is dealing methamphetamine to support his own drug habit.”
Logo pleaded guilty to five High Court charges: two counts of supplying meth that month to Selwyn and “persons unknown”, two counts of possession of meth for supply on the day the search warrants were executed and one count of conspiring with the younger Fausia brother to injure Selwyn. He was also sentenced last week for two unrelated meth charges that he had pleaded guilty to in the district court.
The elder Fausia brother, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to the same supplying to “persons unknown” charge and five other counts relating to the contraband found in his home.
Chequered past
It was noted during last week’s sentencing that Andrew Fausia, 30, had 11 prior convictions, most notably for a group assault on Princes Wharf in February 2022 and for careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs causing death.
In 2013, aged 19, he was driving the car of a friend, David Sionepulu, when he lost control and crashed into a fence in Orakai. Sionepulu died at the scene, impaled him through his torso by a steel rod.
Andrew Fausia pushes a photographer out of the way in February 2013 as he's leaving Auckland District Court for charges relating to the death of David Sionepulu. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Justice Ian Gault, however, agreed with defence lawyer Jonathon Hudson that the previous crimes were irrelevant to the current offending. He declined to uplift the sentence but noted that mention of the past convictions did serve a purpose, ruling out any discount for previous good behaviour.
Andrew Fausia was given a sentence starting point of four years and six months imprisonment, with his lawyer suggesting he had a lesser role in the drug dealing than his co-defendant.
“I accept you operated under Mr Logo’s direction on the two occasions identified,” Justice Gault responded. “However, the items located at your address – methamphetamine in plastic bags, cutting agent and significant cash – indicate an operational function of some scale and actual or expected financial advantage.”
A year was added to the sentence for the guns and ammo found during the search of his home, with the judge noting that “deterrent sentences are required where firearms offending is associated with drug dealing activity”.
The defendant sought discounts for remorse, background and his guilty pleas. The judge declined a discount for remorse.
“You sought to downplay your part, indicating you did not know how serious the offending was and saying the motive for your offending was your own addiction and financial struggles you were facing, and that you were trying to give your family the best life you could,” Justice Gault noted. “The Crown acknowledges your remorse for Mr Selwyn’s death but notes that you are not being sentenced on a charge relating to that.”
Andrew Fausia suggested that other mitigating factors might be the multiple rugby concussions he has suffered in the past and his anxiety about prison after having been stabbed while in custody.
Justice Gault allowed reductions totalling 30%, resulting in an end sentence of three years and 10 months in prison.
‘No excuse’
Logo’s drug offending, meanwhile, resulted in a starting point of five years and six months imprisonment – one year longer than his co-defendant’s starting point.
When all of his charges are combined, he had control of over 202g of methamphetamine, the judge noted. That would equate to about 2000 individual doses, police have indicated in previous drug-related cases, but Justice Gault characterised Logo’s individual charges as indicative of “small street dealer/retail amounts”.
A year was added for Logo’s conspiracy to injure charge.
“I have taken into account the victim impact statements provided by Mr Selwyn’s whānau for the earlier [manslaughter] sentencing [of Alex Fausia],” Justice Gault said. “The relevant charge today is conspiracy to injure, but I recognise that its outcome was the tragic loss of Mr Selwyn’s life.
“I have read those victim impact statements and I know that whatever sentence I impose today for the relevant offending today cannot undo the harm the family has experienced.”
Four more months were added for committing some of the crimes while he was on bail.
Sentence reductions amounting to 40% were then factored after defence lawyer Mark Ryan pointed to Logo’s background, relative youth (he was 24 at the time of offending), remorse letter and guilty pleas.
One report noted that he developed mild gambling and severe methamphetamine disorders after returning from Australia to New Zealand to support his mother after the death of his father. But in a contradictory report, he insisted he never consumed meth and denied being under the influence at the time of the offending – stating instead that he saw the drug only as a source of income.
“Your letter sincerely apologises to the victim’s family,” the judge noted. “You acknowledge you have no excuse for what you have done and say you will take full responsibility and ownership of your action. This also contradicts what you told the pre-sentence report writer. You there sought to blame the victim and denied any intention to hurt him.”
Logo’s end sentence was four years and two months’ imprisonment, four months longer than his co-defendant’s.
‘Hid him away’
Throughout the nearly two-year court process that ended last week, the victim’s family and supporters showed up at each hearing wearing black T-shirts that read “Justice4Ajae”.
Their lives have not been the same since Selwyn’s death, his brother Michael Nancorrow wrote in a statement that was read aloud by Crown prosecutor Henry Steele at Alex Fausia’s sentencing in August.
He recounted “the soul-shattering screams we heard after learning our brother was killed over something so minuscule” and ongoing concern for his brother’s children.
Adrian "Ajae" Selwyn didn't even see the attack coming, his sister told the court.
“He didn’t even see you coming,” Selwyn’s sister said at the same hearing, adding that her brother “never stood a chance” against three men. “Ajae’s life was taken by a brutal coward act.
“Eight nights and eight days my brother’s lifeless body lay on his bed, rotting, further and further beyond recognition ... Hauntingly, my brother’s children never got to see him in his coffin, to hug him and kiss him and say goodbye for the last time.”
Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith, who oversaw the previous sentencing, acknowledged that all three men should feel ashamed for how they had handled the situation.
“The harm that you caused is not repairable,” she told Alex Fausia. “You have taken a life. You did not mean to kill which is why the charge is manslaughter, but you did an incredibly violent and dangerous act and when your victim was unconscious, and probably dying, you did not call emergency services. You did not even leave him where he fell so that he might have been seen by someone else who could call emergency services.
“You and your associates hid him away from any chance of help.”
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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