Michael Filoa, pictured, is on trial for murder alongside Aaron Davis in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Michael Filoa, pictured, is on trial for murder alongside Aaron Davis in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Michael Filoa was dazed from having just been hit in the head with a mystery object, unable to see clearly and he had just heard a series of ominous clicks along with the words "it's jammed" when he decided open fire into the car he was leaning against, he told a jury today at his murder trial.
"I didn't know what he was referring to - I believed it was a gun," the self-described small-time drug dealer said, describing frantic and confusing moments as what was supposed to be a routine methamphetamine sale to Mongrel Mob member Clifford Umuhuri devolved to violence.
"I only fired two shots to deter the person who was trying to hurt me," he said. "At the end of the day if he's coming for my life I have to think quick."
But very little of Filoa's explanation about the fatal June 2020 encounter makes sense, Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey suggested during a tense cross-examination today, pointing to an autopsy finding that one of Umuhuri's two gunshot wounds was to his buttocks.
"Well, did he have his bum up in the air?" Dickey asked the defendant, insisting that is the only way the wound could have occurred if Umuhuri was still in the car when the shots were fired rather than running away from Filoa. "Did it scare you to see his bum up like that?"
Michael Filoa (left) and Aaron Davis are on trial for murder in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Filoa was the final witness to testify at his robbery and murder trial, which has been ongoing in the High Court at Auckland for just over two weeks now. Co-defendant Aaron Davis, who faces the same charges, elected not to testify on his own behalf today.
Justice Layne Harvey told jurors that closing arguments are expected to begin tomorrow.
Prosecutors have alleged that Filoa and Davis had always intended a "standover" - or robbery - of Umuhuri, who was described by another witness as one of Bay of Plenty's largest drug dealers. The supply chain for methamphetamine was tight amid the nation's first Covid-19 lockdown and so Umuhuri had come to Auckland, where the drug was more plentiful, looking to make purchases, authorities have suggested.
Filoa acknowledged today that he had intended to sell Umuhuri 14 grams of methamphetamine just before sunrise on June 1, 2020, after the defendants had a car containing Umuhuri and three others follow them to a quiet residential neighbourhood in Auckland suburb St Johns. Filoa was sitting in the back seat of a car driven by Davis, who had arranged the deal, when Umuhuri got in beside him, he said.
"As I was counting the money, I was attacked," Filoa testified. "I don't recall seeing what hit me, but it was really hard. Mr Davis opened the door, got me out and then he ran off."
Clifford Umuhuri was fatally shot in Auckland in June 2020. Photo / Supplied
Filoa said he had been carrying a .22 calibre weapon - either a pistol or a cut-down rifle - in his waistband and he decided he needed to use it as he leaned against the ajar back car door he had just emerged from. He could only see Umuhuri's outline and shadows from the back seat as he heard the clicking sound, he said.
"There was no set-up," Filoa replied to Dickey's suggestion he was the one who had planned a robbery.
"You guys set it up, didn't you, because you didn't have any [meth] left to sell?" Dickey asked. "It's just bad luck you got Mr Umuhuri because he was prepared to fight, wasn't he?
"You shot him because you were just plain angry or pissed off at him."
Dickey suggested to Filoa that if he was truly fearful for his safety he could have left like he said Davis did.
Michael Filoa, pictured, is on trial for murder alongside Aaron Davis in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
"You make it sound so easy," Filoa replied, adding that he was "disorientated", barely on his feet and he saw two other people running towards the car.
Filoa also repeatedly refused to acknowledge to prosecutors that he knew firing a gun at close range that morning had the potential to be fatal.
"I honestly didn't know what would happen," he insisted. "I only carry it for protection ... I've never done this before.
