Four women are on trial in Wellington today for murder after a Karori man was fatally shot in the back as he slept in his bed in 2020.

Prosecutors say the killing was an act of revenge against Rau Tongia, 33, after he had assaulted one of the women earlier in the night.

The trial began in the Wellington High Court this morning. The group of women face various charges, including murder and accessory to murder.

Shayde Carolyn Weston, Breeze Hunt-Weston, Louise Kelly Hume, and Pania Ella Waaka have all pleaded not guilty to murder. Hunt-Weston has also pleaded not guilty to an alternative charge of accessory after the fact to murder, and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

A fifth person who was due to go on trial is no longer present. Judge Andru Isaac told the jury she was no longer joining this trial due to health issues.

Some of the defendants are alleged to have driven other defendants to commit the killing, while others are accused of having helped to conceal evidence, or providing vehicles and other means to help other defendants.

Shayde Weston is accused of being the person who fired the killing shot, while Waaka is accused of driving her to the scene to commit the murder.

In court today, Crown prosecutor Sally Carter laid out the Crown case before the jury, saying each person was liable of murder for their alleged involvement in the incident.

She explained Weston had been seen kissing Tongia’s partner, and that Tongia was upset about it.

Weston later emerged from a room with facial injuries and said Tongia attacked her while she was sleeping, Carter said.

Others, including her sister, Breeze Hunt-Weston, picked Weston up and took her elsewhere.

In the hours between the assault and the killing, Weston, Hunt-Weston and others came back to the property allegedly armed with a knife and a hammer and had an altercation on the driveway.

Carter said Hunt-Weston smashed Tongia over the head with the hammer in retaliation for the earlier assault.

“You will hear Shayde Weston left and … made threats to return,” Carter said.

She said Waaka then drove Weston back to the property, and Weston went up the side of the property and accessed Tongia’s bedroom through a sliding door. She is then said to have shot him in the back as he slept.

One man has previously been sentenced for possession of a firearm in relation to Tongia’s death. He was sentenced to community detention earlier this year.

There are 13 lawyers in today’s trial, which is set down to take up to eight weeks.

The trial continues.