Father killed not intended shooting target, jury hears

Sekonaia Vave faced the first day of a jury trial on Monday, after being charged with murder and attempted murder over the late night shooting.

He has pleaded not guilty and denies being at the scene that evening.

Prosecutor Erin Ramsay alleged Vave was in the passenger seat of the ute when it pulled up at the pool hall on Westwood Avenue on February 27.

She claimed Vave fired four to five shots at the venue, just before midnight, in retribution for an argument between his and another man's girlfriend the previous evening.

The intended victim, who cannot be named, was hit with a bullet in the thigh but survived the shooting.

Mr Tuivasa was shot in the head and died from his injuries.

"What the law requires for murder is that the accused person has an intention to kill somebody and then does kill somebody," she told the jury,

"But it does not matter if the person they intended to kill is a different person to the person that they actually killed."

She claimed 45 minutes before the shooting Vave told the man he allegedly intended to hit: "I want to shoot you, I'll f***ing put a bullet in your head."

But Ms Ramsay said the identity of the shooter would be an issue for the jury to decide in the trial, as Vave claimed he was at home with his aunty that night.

Vave's barrister Philip Dunn KC said the prosecution was relying on the intended target's version of events.

"If you step away from their critical witness ... and look at the independent evidence, then you might see a completely different picture," he told the jury.

He questioned whether police had settled for "low-hanging fruit" in investigating Vave because there had been an argument between the two girlfriends the prior evening.

"Where are the police led? Do they go by gossip or do they go by hard evidence?" Mr Dunn said.

The trial before Justice John Ross Champion continues.