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The woman accused of fatally shooting a man in the back while he slept in a revenge killing for an earlier assault was not present during the murder, her lawyer says.
Shayde Carolyn Weston is accused of slaying 33-year-old Wellington man, Rau Tongia, after he attacked her during a birthday celebration the evening before, in December 2020.
The trial over Tongia’s murder began in the Wellington High Court this morning. Four women are charged with murder, and one of them is also facing an alternate charge of being an accessory after the fact to murder, and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Shayde Carolyn Weston. Photo / Juan Zarama Perini
Shayde Carolyn Weston, Breeze Hunt-Weston, Louise Kelly Hume, and Pania Ella Waaka have all pleaded not guilty. Hunt-Weston has pleaded not guilty to the additional charges.
A fifth person who was due to go on trial is no longer present. Judge Andru Isaac told the jury she was no longer joining this trial due to health issues.
In court today, Crown prosecutor Sally Carter laid out the Crown case before the jury, saying each person was liable of murder for their alleged involvement in the incident.
She explained Weston had been seen kissing Tongia’s partner, and that Tongia was upset about it.
Weston later emerged from a room with facial injuries and said Tongia attacked her while she was sleeping, Carter said.
Others, including her sister, Breeze Hunt-Weston, picked Weston up and took her elsewhere.
Louise Kelly Hume. Photo / Juan Zarama Perini
In the hours between the assault and the killing, Weston, Hunt-Weston and others came back to the property allegedly armed with a knife and a hammer and had an altercation on the driveway.
Carter said Hunt-Weston smashed Tongia over the head with the hammer in retaliation for the earlier assault.
“You will hear Shayde Weston left and ... made threats to return,” Carter said.
Pania Ella Waaka. Photo / Juan Zarama Perini
She said Waaka then drove Weston back to the property, and Weston went up the side of the property and accessed Tongia’s bedroom through a sliding door. She is then said to have shot him in the back as he slept.
In an brief opening address to the jury, Weston’s lawyer, Robert Lithgow, said his client was not present at the shooting.
He said she had been in the car that evening heading towards Tongia’s property, but had gotten out of the car at some point and did not travel the whole way to his house.
He said cellphone polling data showed her phone was not in the correct zone for her to have been at Tongia’s property when he was shot.
He also said there was no shotgun residue on any of her clothes.
Carter said the Crown didn’t condone Tongia’s actions when he became upset about Weston kissing his partner.
“He shouldn’t have died for that. The law doesn’t justify that killing.”
She outlined messages between some of the defendants, including to and from the woman who has withdrawn from the trial for health reasons.
She allegedly sent messages telling others to “kill him” and saying “get this c***”.
The other defence lawyers also made opening remarks.
Hunt-Weston’s lawyer, Gretel Fairbrother, said her client did not knowingly provide her car to be used for the murder, and didn’t know it had been taken.
