\u201cfalse floors\u201d<\/a> in Reihana\u2019s car where a \u201ctrigger man\u201d was waiting to shoot him.<\/p>\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t go into a shop without 10 people watching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was f***ed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told police he believed these people wanted him to kill himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t make it too difficult for anyone \u2013 just kill yourself bro,\u201d he claimed people were telling him.<\/p>\n
Morunga believed he was backed into a corner convinced his children\u2019s futures were at stake as Reihana was going to sell them to the Mongrel Mob.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy reasoning behind the death of Jasmaine was to protect my family and my kids\u2019 future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t intentionally planned.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he described events, Morunga repeatedly avoided the period Reihana was stabbed and said his mind was \u201clocked up\u201d, and he was struggling to access memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s locked in the trauma of everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I try to come at a different angle like insight and perception from someone else\u2019s shoes maybe that could help unlock a door shall we try that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay then,\u201d the officer responded.<\/p>\n
Morunga then went on to apologise for \u201cJaz being gone\u201d and that he did it for his kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I made the right decision but I\u2019m pretty sure everyone\u2019s going to end up hurt anyways so I guess I apologise for that, for the mamae [pain] everyone\u2019s feeling. For the mamae you\u2019re going to have to live without Jasmaine around anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after an hour, Morunga went silent again and still did not reveal what happened.<\/p>\n
![\"Anaru]()
Anaru Ihaka Morunga, 35, at his trial in Whang\u0101rei for the murder of his ex-partner Jasmaine Reihana. Photo \/ Shannon Pitman<\/p>\n
The officer left and returned with photos of the crime scene taken minutes after Morunga had left the house with Reihana\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouldn\u2019t they find me?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Morunga said the photos \u201cunlocked the memory\u201d and went on to say Reihana had been saying she needed to be somewhere.<\/p>\n
Reihana\u2019s wh\u0101nau have given evidence they were expecting her in Kaikohe that evening.<\/p>\n
\u2018She just accepted her fate\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI cut her open like a sheep, slit her neck right open, let her go and then she f***ing lay down on the ground and then died,\u201d Morunga said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you cut her neck?\u201d he was asked.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Cause it\u2019s the quickest fastest way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid she scream?\u201d the officer asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, she just accepted her fate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morunga said he watched her soul leave her body and \u201cate it\u201d before saying she will be inside him forever.<\/p>\n
He said he cleaned up, because his mother would be returning home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that was a terrible thing for my mum to come home to.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then wrapped Reihana in his favourite blanket, threw her body in her car and towed the car by tractor to the end of the farm he worked on near Ripir\u014d Beach.<\/p>\n
Morunga said he did that to preserve evidence as the car \u201cwould spread light on the situation\u201d and had DNA that would support his story.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had had plug and play, every scripture from every other phone and I needed that car for evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he did not set fire to the vehicle but claims there were trucks, vehicles and people hiding around the farm watching him as he left.<\/p>\n
The trial continues before Justice David Johnstone.<\/p>\n
Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Crown alleges he killed Reihana at the Pouto Peninsula home in Northland he shared with his mother,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45451,1763,1968,29223,2109,37151,692,3375,52475,4275,111,43,139,69,30308,6289,312,544,1961,61,54,96,13118,1455,1869],"class_list":["post-299504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-anaru","tag-article","tag-discusses","tag-ex","tag-family","tag-graphic","tag-he","tag-killed","tag-morunga","tag-murder","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-protect","tag-readers","tag-says","tag-some","tag-this","tag-to","tag-trial","tag-upsetting","tag-violence","tag-warning","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}