The firearm at the centre of the Rau Tongia murder trial. Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
The murder trial over the death of Karori man Rau Tongia is expected to summed up by the judge at the High Court in Wellington today.
Four women are on trial for the death of Tongia, who was found dead in his home on 20 December 2020.
Shayde Weston, Breeze Hunt-Weston, Pania Waaka and Louise Kelly Hume have all pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
A fifth woman was set to go a trial but was excused for health reasons.
The Crown's case is that Weston and the fifth woman were seen kissing early that night and then Tongia attacked Weston. A second altercation occured in the driveway when Weston was being picked up from Tongia address. The Crown then alleges Weston returned later that night to shoot Tongia, driven by Waaka.
Shane Robinson told the jury on Monday that his client had not provided the gun used to kill Tongia.
The Crown's case is that firearms had previously been identified at Hume's address and that she was the one to organise the gun used to kill Tongia.
The assertion was supported by a text message with the word "org" and CCTV footage which placed the vehicle used to collect Weston after the assault on Percy Dyett Drive then going to Onslow Road where Hume lived.
But Robinson said that was not evidence that a firearm was organised or collected and his client should be found not guilty.
Hunt-Weston's lawyer Gretel Fairbrother also gave her closing address on Monday.
Hunt-Weston is charged with murder or an alternative accessory after the fact. She is also charged with wounding Tongia with a hammer during the driveway altercation.
Fairbrother has maintained throughout the trial that Hunt-Weston used the hammer in self-defence. But she denies providing her car to Weston and Waaka the night Tongia died.
During her closing, she put to the jury that Weston should not be found guilty of either the murder or the wounding charges and they should seek to convict on the accessory charge, for helping move the firearm.
Defence closings for Weston and Waaka were delivered last week.
Justice Andru Isac is expected to today sum up the case and provide instructions to the jury before their deliberations.
