Faalili Moleli Fauatea, 23, died soon after he and three others smashed their way into the family home of Orren Scott Williams about 3.30am on June 6, last year. Video / Dean Taylor
As four men, two who were armed, chased after her husband, Taryn Williams pushed her two small children out a bedroom window before propping them up on each hip and running for their lives.
She kept running as she and her kids then began hearing gunshots firing off in the distance of their Harbour Rd home, just a few kilometres from Hauturu School just after 3.30am on June 6, 2019.
Her husband, and now murder accused Orren Scott Williams, 37, is on trial in the High Court at Hamilton the past week defending the charge, after the death of Faalili Moleli Fauatea, 23, and three other charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Orren Scott Williams in the High Court in Hamilton denies charges of murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Photo / Belinda Feek
The Crown has alleged Williams was seeking vengeance on the men, claiming they broke into his home seeking to steal two large bags of cannabis, and that he fired as they were retreating, fearful of their safety.
Defence counsel Philip Morgan, QC, got to give a brief overview of his case to the jury of six men and six women in court this afternoon.
He denies the men were fleeing for their lives, and told the jury his client was frightened at the men who smashed their way into his home as he helped his find his son some more ventolin after he woke up coughing.
His son went
from the kitchen back to his room, when Williams heard some tapping at the front door.
"It didn't sink in what it was," he told Detective Sergeant Raine in a statement given to him on October 10, last year.
The bullet-ridden Toyota Harrier which four men fled in after an armed burglary of Orren Williams' home on June 6, 2019. The car is pictured parked at the principal's residence of Hauturu School.
The porch lights were on and he could see a figure standing at the door which has two separate glass panels.
He opened the door slightly and saw a person wearing a balaclava and slammed it shut.
The person on the other side then started smashing their way through the door.
He ran to the lounge and grabbed a taiaha and swung it at the door, with little effect.
The man kept smashing the object at the front door before they eventually made their way inside.
As they all walked down the hallway towards the bedroom
Williams swung the taiaha into the back of the last man.
He turned around and pushed Williams and he tried to fend him off.
The four men and Williams ended up in a tussle in the lounge, chasing each other, with
Williams trying to fend them off and trying to break free.
Eventually Williams said he tripped, falling to the ground and to the feet of the man with a shotgun, who was pointing it at his wife, now crouching next to him.
WIlliams hit the man and
ran off to the laundry
to his gun cabinet. As he
ripped open one of the doors, one of the men
began kicking open the laundry door, He grabbed a gun, and some ammunition and hurriedly put it in the gun.
"Yes there was a tragedy, and yes it had the effect of striking Shaun Te Kanawa in the arm, and [Joe] Tumaialu in the ankle and Toilolo was unlucky to have had a bullet fired in the back of the car and it's gone through the bottom of the rear windscreen, through two seats to hit him."
It was as these shots were being fired that Taryn Williams had a child on each of her hips, running from the house into the darkness.
"She was woken by these men making their way into her home. She got out into the hallway and was confronted by the group who threatened her with the machete and struck her with the gun, into the lounge and forced her to the floor and she was too terrified to look up."
She would also give evidence how, after her husband fled, she heard the men say "get him, get him" and ran after him.
The entrance to the Hauturu School principal's residence which sits below the school itself. Photo / Belinda Feek
"She skittled out of the lounge, grabbed her children, out the window, and one on each hip and ran and ran and ran and heard gunshots and ran and heard gunshots and ran."
He denied that the case was about chapters, as the Crown has submitted, instead it was simply "an event involving evil men, with evil deeds on their minds, all tooled up ... having armed themselves for what they were intending to do."
Morgan told the jury his client was justified in his actions which were self defence as he too had no idea where his wife and children were and what had happened to them.
"It's a case that these were men from whom the defendant felt that he needed to defend himself and family by the best means available.
"The defence says it's not about some men who were retreating, fleeing or escaping, what this case is but is a man who was confronted by evil men with evil deeds on their minds and that's what he perceived."
Orren Williams will give his evidence tomorrow morning.
The trial is expected to finish this week and is being overseen by Justice Mary Peters.
* Shaun Te Kanawa, Grayson Toilolo and Joe Tumaialu were all charged with aggravated burglary for their part in the incident. Te Kanawa and Tumaialu have been sentenced, however Toilolo's case is still before the court. Emma Salvation, who hatched the burglary plan, was convicted of burglary and sentenced to 12 months' home detention.
