Flat Bush Murder: Trial begins for Hells Angels member Andrew Lamositelle-Brown accused of murdering Petau Petau

With longtime friend Andrew Lamositela-Brown dead in the hallway, police surrounding his South Auckland home and his terrified partner and children barricaded upstairs, a police negotiator asked him a simple question: what’s going on up there?

“What’s really going on is he’s been fucking the wrong pussy,” the Hells Angels member responded that Boxing Day morning almost two years ago, presumably referring to shooting victim and fellow Hells Angels member Petau Petau.

That’s the scene prosecutors presented to jurors today as the murder trial of Lamositelle-Brown, also named Andrew Tovia Fepuleai, began in the High Court in Auckland.

His lawyers suggested the shooting was accidental.

Brown surrendered to police after leaving the garage of his Flat Bush home around 8 a.m. on Dec. 26, 2021. But Crown prosecutor Chris Howard today told jurors the build-up to the shooting happened on Christmas Day when the defendant began overindulging in Hennessy cognac and other alcohol at home while his wife and children were visiting relatives.

When the family returned around 10 p.m., Lamositele-Brown’s partner was concerned about how much he had to drink “and the effect it was having on him,” Howard noted in his opening statement.

At 12:35 a.m., Petau texted him, “Merry Christmas, my assistant,” and Lamosite-Brown called him just minutes later, records show. Witnesses later told police they heard another man’s loud Harley-Davidson motorcycle pull up to the cul-de-sac around 1 a.m.

By 1.13am the first of numerous witnesses called 111 to report a disturbance.

Prosecutors said Lamositele-Brown shot Petau in the chest, piercing his heart and left lung, with a 9mm semi-automatic pistol – most likely while Petau was sitting at the dinner table. After hearing the gunshot, the defendant’s wife ran downstairs from the bedroom and found Petau face down and motionless in the hallway, where prosecutors say he tripped before he died.

“She let out a loud scream,” Howard said, explaining that the woman then saw the gun and confronted the defendant as his two older daughters tried in vain to help Petau. “She tried to disarm him. These two were fighting.”

But when Lamositele-Brown pointed the gun at his partner, she and her daughters ran upstairs, barricaded themselves in the bedroom and called police, the jury was told.

Authorities say two minutes after the initial 111 call, the defendant fired again. Police arrived about 1:35 a.m. and the third shot was fired 20 minutes later, Howard said.

Prosecutors noted that on two occasions, police officers involved in the negotiations asked Lamositele-Brown over the phone what was going on, at about 3:50 a.m. and again at 5:36 a.m. The first response concerned Petau, prosecutors said. The second time, he allegedly responded, “Ask my wife.” During this time, police were able to enter the home through a bedroom window and quietly extract the defendant’s family, authorities said.

After his arrest, nearly seven hours after the first 111 call, police found a still loaded gun, 41 live bullets scattered throughout the house, and three bullet holes in the walls of the dining room and hallway.

For Lamositele-Brown to be convicted of murder, prosecutors will have to prove he had “murderous intent” – meaning he either intentionally killed his friend or intended to cause bodily harm and deliberately took the risk of causing death.

“I expect intent to kill will be a big issue in this trial,” Howard predicted, suggesting the evidence points to that conclusion. “Andrew Lamositele-Brown took a loaded semi-automatic pistol and in anger fired it at close range at Petau Petau, killing him.”

As always, defense attorneys Vivienne Feyen and Mark Edgar had the opportunity to address the jury with a much shorter statement, but will be given the opportunity to expand on their thoughts in an optional address after the Crown completes its presentation of evidence.

Feyen said there is a big gap between the murder plot prosecutors allege and what actually happened – an accident.

She stressed that the trial was not about the Hells Angels, but about two men who were close friends and “an accidental shooting of a gun in the family home.”

“We are talking about the circumstances under which a gun went off in the cafeteria that morning, killing a friend,” she said.

Although the defense did not mention it in its opening statement, prosecutors referred to the specific model of gun the defendant had in his possession that morning. There were “some problems” overseas, with “a few instances of a model exploding when it was dropped”, Howard admitted, adding that a police armorer had been tasked with checking weapons confiscated by police that day to see if it had occurred. any such defect.

The jury was told that despite repeated tapping, dropping and other stress tests on the gun, it only fired when the trigger was pulled.

Testimony is expected to continue when the trial resumes tomorrow before Judge Sally Fitzgerald and a jury.

Craig Captain is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand since 2002.