Rau Tongia murder case: Woman says she heard noises like distant fireworks

A woman who was in the house the night Karori man Rau Tongia died says she woke to what sounded like fireworks.

Four women are charged with murder of 33-year-old Rau Tongia in December 2020.

The trial began in the High Court in Wellington on Monday.

Shayde Carolyn Weston, Breeze Hunt-Weston, Louise Kelly Hume, and Pania Ella Waaka have all pleaded not guilty to murder.

Hunt-Weston has pleaded not guilty to additional charges, including an accessory after the fact to murder, and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

A fifth woman who was due to go on trial is no longer in court, with Justice Isaac telling the jury she was no longer joining this trial due to health issues.

The Crown said the fifth woman was in a bedroom the night Tongia was shot while he slept.

Her niece, who made the 111 call about 8am, told the court she had woken up about 5am to what sounded like distant fireworks.

She later went into the room where Tongia was to grab nappies and assumed he was sleeping.

She said it was her aunt, who was sleeping next to him, who first alerted her to the fact he was not breathing.

The niece told the court she was living in the house with her aunt, Rau Tongia, three of her cousins and a baby.

Dispatcher urged for resuscitation attempt

The niece told the 111 dispatcher that when they had woken up, they had found Tongia unresponsive.

She told the dispatcher Tongia had been involved in an argument the night before and had been bleeding from the head.

The dispatcher urged the niece to have someone attempt to resuscitate Tongia with mouth to mouth.

Sounds of a short disagreement are heard through the call with the niece telling someone to "f***ing do it".

The dispatcher then confirms with the niece multiple times that no one in the house is willing to do mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Smashed in the head with a hammer

The Crown in their opening statement said Tongia's death was "an act of revenge".

Prosecutor Sally Carter told the court that a number of hours before the shooting Tongia assaulted Shayde Weston.

Carter said Weston and Breeze Hunt-Weston then had an altercation with Tongia in the driveway where Hunt-Weston "smashed Mr Tongia over the head with a hammer".

However, defence for Hunt-Weston, Gretel Fairbrother, in her opening remarks said Hunt-Weston's actions had been in defence of Weston, who was under another "brutal and physical attack" from Tongia.

In opening remarks on Monday defence counsel for Weston, Robert Lithgow, said his client was not even at Percy Dyett Drive during the time Tongia was killed.

Defence counsel for Hunt-Weston, Waaka and Hume also said their clients were not knowingly involved in Tongia's death.

Neighbours on Tuesday told the court they recalled seeing police at Tongia's Percy Dyett Drive residence and hearing swearing and yelling in the early hours of the morning on 20 December.

Next door neighbour Aperehama Wairau-Mason recalled seeing a beaten up woman going down the driveway along with Tongia's partner.

Tongia then went down the driveway after an argument started and that the yelling escalated after he did, he said.

Although in shadows, it looked like someone punched or stabbed Tongia, who then came back up the driveway angry and holding his stomach, he said.

The niece recalled helping Tongia stop the blood flow with a pillowcase in the house.

Shot in the back

Officer in charge of the body Daniel Scott, along with paramedics who responded to the emergency services call, told the court on Tuesday there was a large wound on the Tongia's back.

Scott said a postmortem indicated he had been shot with a shotgun.

One of the paramedics recalled seeing blood splatters all the way up the driveway, but said there was not the obvious head injury they were expecting.

Another recalled seeing a lot of blood on the bed.