Why would a man agree to kill a couple he'd never met?
By Finn Blackwell of RNZ
That was what Crown prosecutors asked Shu Man Poon, who earlier pleaded guilty to the murders of an Auckland couple in 2023.
His former co-defendant Lok Fung Lorrence Li was on trial in the High Court at Auckland, accused of murdering Fuk-Fu Joseph Kwok and Mei Han Chong in their Ellerslie home.
He had also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to murder his former landlord with Poon.
Poon earlier pleaded guilty to his role in the Kwok killings as well as the murder plot, and on Wednesday gave evidence against the man he said had pressured him to kill.
He was asked by prosecutor Matthew Nathan why he would be involved in the murder of the Kwoks, two people he had never met before.
After a long pause, Poon spoke.
"Before all this happened, I was being threatened by Mr Li my co-offender that he will promise to destroy my family," he said.
"Also, I had a debt with him of $7000."
Poon told the court he met Li through the Amazing Grace Christian Church in May 2023.
He had been asked by a pastor to look after his new church mate.
"I was trying to fulfil my promise to look after him," Poon said.
"I thought that we are Christians, so that looking after each other will be a blessed thing."
Poon said he took on the role of older brother to Li.
The pair would frequently spend time together, multiple days a week, and would talk.
A fierce hatred
Poon told the court Li would talk about people he believed had treated him poorly.
"He mentioned some of the people that he met, and then he said that they haven't treated him nicely," he said.
"One of them is his landlord..."
Li's hatred toward his landlord was fierce, Poon recalled.
"In my memory he said that, 'if there's no law I would probably punish him, punish them, like even murder them'."
Poon spoke about being used as a decoy, so Li could place a GPS tracker in his landlord's car.
"He actually wanted to rob her family, and after robbing her, murder her," Poon said.
Li had told Poon he believed the landlord was rich, Poon said.
The two had gone to Li's old rental, with Li telling his landlord he wanted to look for something he had left behind.
The plan was to later go to the landlord's property and 'make them suffer' in order to get the codes to their credit cards.
"Then will go to one of the ATM machines to collect the money," Poon said.
"He said if the code is not correct, he will tell me to make them suffer more to disclose the card number or the code."
Poon said he had originally thought Li was joking, chalking it up to an expression of his anger toward his landlord.
But soon, the two were buying night vision goggles, military boots, a baton, and a tomahawk.
Li had also told Poon he had stolen license plates.
Concerns raised over alleged murder plot
Poon expressed his concerns to Li, telling him what they were doing was illegal.
"This is not right," he recalled telling Li.
Li told him no one would find out.
Jurors had earlier heard Poon confided the plan to his church leaders, who encouraged him to go to the police.
The report Poon made to authorities was later filed away, and wouldn't be revisited until after the Kwoks were dead.
Poon said he had wanted to be honest with his church, and ask for help in clearing his debt to Li.
At the police station, Poon said he told the authorities everything.
"I explained that this friend Mr Li was trying to push me to do some illegal action, because of this debt, he tried to force me to do some criminal acts with him."
Poon told police about the plan to rob and murder, he said.
Shortly after, Poon said he had a serious headache as taken to a 24-hour urgent care clinic where he would stay overnight.
Poon read out a suicide note he wrote in September 2023 to the court.
In it, Poon said he had enough evidence to prove he was mentally "unstable" at the time he was associated with Li.
He had only agreed to help in order to try divert Li's "mistaken thoughts", Poon said.
Poon had hoped someone would find his body with the note.
He told jurors he had tried to convince Li to abandon the plot.
"I actually tried to change or convince him to stop, that's why I delayed so many times," Poon said.
Conspiracy over text
The court went through translated messages between Li and Poon, including Li's frustration over an apparent change in Poon's attitude toward the plot against Li's landlord.
"You said we can't go back on what we did. Now you tell me that the people from the church treat you well? are you OK?," Li wrote.
"You need to know, this b***h deserved it."
Li was trying to encourage him back into the plot, as he continued to send messages intended to provoke Poon, he said.
The court had earlier heard Poon messaged Li that the police may have learned of their plot.
He told the court he had fabricated this to further delay the plan.
Nathan pointed to messages where Poon said he would take the blame for everything.
"At that time I still think I'm the big brother, I'm the older brother of him, I'm just trying to protect him at the time," Poon said.
"Because of this protection and promise, I'm trying to protect him from being arrested."
He had told Li he was gangster, but apologised in court, saying that was not the case.
It was just another effort to get Li to fall in line, and call off the plan, Poon said.
Poon believed Li knew he was lying.
The trial continues.
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