Court hears murder accused feared letting victims go: ‘We’re gonna be in the f***in’ box next’
A man accused of a horrific double-murder, where two people were bashed and stuffed in a toolbox before being thrown in a Logan dam to die, said he wanted to let the pair go but was told not to because he’d be “in the f***in’ box next”.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A MAN accused of a horrific double-murder, where two people were bashed and stuffed in a toolbox before being thrown in a Logan dam to die, said he wanted to let the pair go but was told not to because he’d be “in the f***in’ box next”.
Tuhirangi-Thomas Tahiata is accused of being a party to the murders of drug dealers Cory Breton and Iuliana Triscaru on January 24, 2016.
The court has heard the pair were bashed and cut with knives hours earlier, after being lured to a Kingston unit.
They died of drowning or asphyxiation after spending their final moments screaming for help from inside the toolbox that was sinking into Scrubby Creek at Logan.
Tahiata has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, the jury heard a third police interview, which was conducted with the 28-year-old in the Brisbane Watch-house on February 12, 2016 after he had been charged with the murders.
The man had already participated in several interviews with homicide detectives before being charged, where said he knew nothing about the killings before changing his story to say he acted alone.
On February 12, he said: “Sitting in these cells, it’s made me realise like when I got interviewed before by the detectives, I just basically took the rap for everything”.
Tahiata told police he was told by a group of people who had bashed Breton and Triscaru: “We got these two in a box, in a toolbox and we need you to take them. Need you to drop them off”.
“I just said: ‘OK, OK, anything for you guys, you know I’m always here for you guys,” Tahiata said in the recorded interview.
He told detectives as the toolbox was being loaded onto the tray of the ute he sat in the cab listening to loud music but the group were unable to lift it so he had to help.
“I could hear like all these kicks and screams and I was like, what the f***, brah. What the f***’s happening. And then they were just like: ‘Shh, be quiet’,” he said.
The court also heard there had allegedly been another plan to dispose of the bodies.
“Someone was saying they were gonna f***in’ just shoot them throw them off a cliff, or leave them in the toolbox and throw them off a cliff,” Tahiata told police.
Tahiata later said as he was driving to Scrubby Creek with the toolbox on the back of the ute, he tried to convince another man to let Breton and Triscaru go.
“ … I was like: ‘C*** there’s no one even behind us. Let’s let them go, brah. F***, I’m just gonna let them go if you don’t’. He’s like: ‘No brah, we can’t man, f*** we can’t. We can’t man, otherwise we’re gonna be in the f***in’ box next’. I was like: ‘C***, f*** just let them go, I’m not scared of these c***s, man. I’ll fight all of these c***s. I don’t even care …’,” he said.
Tahiata told police when he arrived at Scrubby Creek he helped another man unload the toolbox.
“I helped him pull it out, and then he goes: ‘Oh f***, you can hear them scream, go turn the music back on’. And then I just stayed in the car, turned my music on, and I just stayed there, I, like f***in hands over the ears,” he said.
The trial continues on Thursday.
‘Not all heroes wear capes’: One of seven guilty of group bashing
One of seven men - including a bikie trio and Gold Coast gym owner who planned a rival’s bashing for allegedly refusing to give back a woman’s car - says “not all heroes wear capes”.
Twist after couple’s alleged underwear heroin bust
A Sunshine Coast labourer who was allegedly linked to a large heroin stash in his girlfriend’s underwear after the pair was arrested by detectives has made his own attempt at bail.