Accused ‘closed eyes and swung the sickle’

MURDER-ACCUSED Michael Murray has testified that he just ‘‘closed my eyes and swung the sickle’’ when he saw Connor Morris viciously beating his younger brother.

Murray, 34, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland accused of murdering Morris, 26, on August 3, 2014, on a suburban West Auckland street.

Morris, the partner of Millie Elder-Holmes and an associate of the Head Hunters gang, was killed with a long-handled sickle, swung point-first into the side of his head.

Murray admits delivering the blow but says he was acting in defence of his brother Stanley, who was being beaten by Morris during a melee in Don Buck Rd.

He said the fight started after he saw a relative, Trevor Morunga, kick one of three men walking past their property.

Murray said he grabbed Morunga and said ‘‘What the f... are you doing?’’

As soon as the kick landed, one of the three men started running to a house down the street and one of the other men said they had ‘‘f..... with the wrong people’’ and mentioned the Head Hunters.

Murray said he next saw ‘‘a wave’’ of men – angry, large men dressed in black – coming down the street towards them.

He went back into his property and grabbed the long-handled sickle he had been cutting grass with earlier in the day.

Murray said when he arrived back at the street he saw his Murder accused Michael Murray says he was defending his brother. brother Stanley step forward and say ‘‘we don’t want no trouble’’ but a big, bulky man in dark clothing stepped forward and ‘‘smashed him’’.

The man grabbed Stanley by the hair and ‘‘rag-dolled’’ him towards himself and punched Stanley several times in the face, he said. Stanley dropped to the ground and Murray said he yelled to leave his little brother alone.

‘‘I stepped forward to the vicinity of where the man was, I closed my eyes and swung the sickle.

‘‘I didn’t know where it hit him, I just saw him stop hitting Stan and fall to the ground.’’

Murray said he grabbed brother and the pair ran off.

The defence case opened with lawyer Marie Dyhrberg, QC, saying her client wished he could turn back the clock and have matters take a ‘‘very different path for everyone’’.

Murray did not want trouble that night and he tried to deescalate the situation when his cousin attacked the man.

‘‘He acted as he did in defence of his young brother.’’

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