Whenuapai homicide: Suspect lured from cavity after tug-of-war at door

The High Court heard murder-accused Isaac Allen Harnwell emerged from a ceiling cavity “manhole” in an Onehunga building. Photo / Google

“I was going to hand myself in tomorrow.”

That’s what murder-accused Isaac Allen Harnwell is said to have told armed police after he was lured from an Onehunga manhole last August.

Exactly one year later, jurors at Harnwell’s trial heard from Constable Ben Ferguson, who found Harnwell in a three-storey building after Coubin Tamatoa was killed.

Harnwell has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 31-year-old Tamatoa, who died at a Whenuapai property after a wild and violent, drug-addled night.

Ferguson told the High Court at Auckland he went to the third floor and saw a short hallway with a closed door, which he approached.

“I turned the handle. I got the door open partially and then I was met with resistance. The door slammed back closed,” he said.

Armed police outside the Trig Rd property where Coubin Tamatoa was killed last year. Photo / Dean Purcell

“I could hear a male voice and scuffling around in the room … I could hear what appeared to be movement inside the ceiling cavity.”

Ferguson said he also heard what sounded like the slide action on a pistol.

He called out: “Armed Police. If you comply you won’t be hurt.”

The constable said Harnwell replied: “Okay, I’m coming, bro.”

Ferguson said Harnwell materialised from a “manhole” with his hands up, and soon after told police he’d been planning to surrender himself.

Tamatoa was killed a week earlier at a Trig Rd property on Auckland’s northwest fringes.

Prosecutors have said Harnwell waited in a room for hours, then stabbed Tamatoa in the eye and chest, and then fled in the night through nearby properties.

The defence has said Harnwell was acting either in self-defence or to defend Tamatoa’s ex-girlfriend.

Armed police went to Onehunga to find a suspect after Coubin Tamatoa was fatally stabbed. File Photo / NZ Herald

Jurors today also heard from Daniel Leslie, who looked out from his West Auckland kitchen at 2.30am on August 5 last year after hearing banging.

“Someone came from the bushes.”

Leslie said a stranger greeted him and he replied by telling him to come no closer.

“He was energetic or quite perky for that early in the morning. It was a bit sort of frantic and all over the place.”

Leslie said the man told him “I’m in trouble” or something along those lines.

At the High Court in Auckland, Isaac Harnwell’s lawyer said the accused killer acted either in self-defence or in defence of Coubin Tamatoa’s ex-girlfriend. Photo / File

He made a phone call on the man’s behalf before agreeing to give him a lift.

“It didn’t seem like he was getting a ride from anybody.”

He said the man took his tracksuit pants off and seemed to turn them inside out.

“A glass pipe fell out and smashed on the ground, on my driveway.”

Leslie said he reluctantly agreed to give the man a lift to Massey.

The trial before Justice Mathew Downs and the jury continues.