Witness claims murder accused Samuel Samson said he 'snapped'

Samuel Samson at the Invercargill High Court, where he is on trial over the murder of his former partner Azalia Wilson. Photo / ODT

Murder accused Samuel Samson told her he had snapped, the woman who picked him up near Christchurch on the day Azalia Wilson was murdered says.

Jurors heard the evidence on the fourth day of a jury trial before Justice Gerald Nation in the High Court at Invercargill yesterday.

Samson is accused of murdering Miss Wilson at the Bavarian Motel in Invercargill early on November 17, 2019.

Sharlea Sewell said she met Samson on the outskirts of Christchurch in the late afternoon or early evening of November 17.

When she got there, Samson was in a silver Mitsubishi Diamante by himself, she said.

"I asked him what was wrong because he wasn't himself."

He looked broken and told her he had snapped, she said.

When pressed by Crown prosecutor Riki Donnelly if Samson explained what he meant or why he snapped, she replied, "no".

It was not until she searched "Invercargill motel" on the internet that she found what he had been talking about, she said.

When Donnelly asked why she made that search, she could not explain.

Earlier yesterday, taxi driver Abraham Mohammed said he had picked up a man from outside the Noodle Canteen in Invercargill about 1.23am.

During the ride, the passenger seemed agitated, and while he was talking fast and he could not really understand what he was saying, he knew the passenger was talking about his family, Mohammed said.

He dropped the passenger off about two-three metres before the Bavarian Motel.

The passenger stayed in the car after paying the fare then said to him "you will see me in the news" before he left, Mohammed said.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Judith Ablett-Kerr QC, Mohammed admitted when police took his first statement on November 25, 2019, he had failed to tell them the passenger had spoken about his family, that he appeared to be angry and about the comment he made about seeing him in the news.

It was not until he was interviewed a second time by police, on March 4, 2021, he gave them this information.

"I have family and I don't want to deal with this, you know," Mohammed said.

"I think something [is] going to happen."

David Cook had been staying in the Bavarian Motel next to unit 19, the unit where Miss Wilson, Samson and their baby were staying.

"At 2.30am I was woken up from banging from the room beside me.

He said he could hear a man's angry voice.

He swore at someone 10 to 20 times, Cook said.

Later he believed the man was on the phone to someone and he accused the other person he was talking to of wanting to have sex with his partner.

He believed he heard a car leave, a car return and a car leave again between 3am and 7am but was not certain of the time. He believed the cars were parked somewhere in the vicinity of unit 19.

Other witnesses also gave evidence yesterday relating to a Mitsubishi Diamante which had been borrowed by Samson's brother Daniel in the middle of the night of November 17, 2019.

The trial continues today.