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Source: ONE News -
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A jury in the trial of a man accused of deliberately driving into another car has heard he threatened to hurt someone in the lead-up to a fatal crash.
Witnesses also told the court 49-year-old Tony Worrell seemed to be "really drunk" that night.
Tony Worrell, 49, of West Auckland suburb Swanson, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland charged with murder, causing grievous bodily harm, and four charges of attempted intentional damage.
Morrell has denied murder after he ploughed into two vehicles, killing a newly-wed.
Katie Powles, 26, died when Worrell's car struck her vehicle in Karaka, South Auckland, on June 3. Another man, Brett Robinson, was also seriously injured.
The court heard from a witness who spoke to Worrell while he was pulled up on the roadside, thinking he might be lost.
"The man stated he was going to going to 'f**k someone up.' That was the best I could understand, he was quite slurred," Ian Cooling, said.
Minutes later Worrell was driving erratically down a road, crossing the centre line and crashing into two oncoming cars.
Cooling was questioned at length by Worrell's lawyers, who wanted to know why a piece of evidence so crucial to a murder trial hadn't appeared in his statements to police.
When asked why he had not mentioned it before Cooling says he didn't realise the bearing it would have on the case.
Sheryll Standford, who was working at a Caltex petrol station on the Drury-Pukekohe road where Worrell pulled up that evening, also gave evidence.
"He said he needed somewhere to sleep. He asked where there was a disco or a pub, but I told him he was probably better off going to Pukekohe," she said.
"He asked for $50 of petrol. I told him he could use pump seven. He pulled up to pump three.
"We were quite certain he was really drunk. He'd left his credit card on the counter so I wrote his name down.
"He asked me how he would go south. He said south, as in Nelson. I gave him directions to the southern motorway.
"I told police these details so they could intercept him before he got to the motorway. But unfortunately, he took a different route."
Standford said Worrell's speech was very slurred and he didn't seem totally co-ordinated. She could smell alcohol.
A jury of seven women and five men heard opening statements from Crown and defence on Tuesday.
Crown prosecutor Kirsten Gray told the jury Worrell was driving on the wrong side of the road, and his blood alcohol level was at least twice the legal driving limit.
Before his car had hit Powles' vehicle, he had already driven into four other vehicles, Gray said.
"He had wanted to end his own life. He was no stranger to attempts at suicide," Gray said.
But Matthew Goodwin, defending Worrell, said he did not deliberately drive at vehicles to attempt suicide.
"He did not have suicide on his mind that night," he said.
Goodwin advised the jury to consider how alcohol would have affected Worrell's judgement when driving that day.
Tomorrow morning jurors will visit the scene of the accident.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
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