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Cheng Qi 'Chris' Wang: Will argue the two men who died came to his home, attacked him, and he acted in self-defence - Source: Fairfax
A bitter marital dispute over four properties led to two men being stabbed to death at an Auckland mansion, a High Court jury has heard.
Cheng Qi "Chris" Wang, 52, is charged with the murder of 44-year-old Zhuo "Michael" Wu and 53-year-old Yishan "Tom" Zhong at his $2 million home in Mt Albert on January 14 last year.
Wang has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Zhong was found lying dead in the driveway of the home with 23 stab wounds, and Wu, with three stab wounds, was found seriously injured near the stairs and died a short time later.
Wang met police at the front door in blood-soaked pyjamas.
Two knives - a hunting knife and a kitchen knife - were found at the house.
In his opening address today, Crown prosecutor Kevin Glubb said the deaths were the "final, tragic" act in a long-running dispute between Wang and his former wife Michelle Chen over residential properties they owned together.
In 2010, two years after they had separated, Chen moved back to China.
To help her gain some control over the properties, Chen enlisted the help of Wu, a private investigator called Phil Jones and a property lawyer called David Snedden.
She claimed she was not receiving income from the properties and wanted Wang out of one of the houses she believed he was living in.
Wu and Zhong had known Wang for some time. Both had gone into business with him, disputes had arisen and the relationships had soured. One led to a Serious Fraud Office investigation that is still unresolved.
The Crown said just before Christmas 2010 a "for sale" sign was spotted outside one of the four properties and Chen resolved to serve her former husband with trespass notices.
Glubb said that on December 15, Jones, Wu and Zhong set out to serve the notices at the different properties. At the Stillwell Rd house they encountered Wang and "matters became quite heated" so, after serving him with all four notices, the trio withdrew.
On January 13 Wu went to see Jones, Chen's lawyer, who advised Wu to let time pass in the hope the lawyers could resolve matters.
Jones was aware that Wu and Zhong planned to visit Wang and take possession of the Mt Albert house.
Jones refused to go along and again advised them to wait.
He said if the two men had to go to the house, they should take police.
On the morning of January 14, Wu went to the Avondale police station to ask for help enforcing the trespass notices.
Glubb said the person at the watchhouse told Wu she couldn't allocate staff but told him to call 111 if he needed help.
At the Mt Albert house Wu and Zhong made their way up the stairs where they encountered a young woman.
She told Wang he had visitors and, at his instructions, went to wait on the balcony.
Peering through the windows she saw the three men rolling around on the ground.
The Crown alleges that on seeing the two men, Wang pulled a hunting knife from his bedside table and used "wanton, senseless and unnecessary violence" on them.
"It was a deliberate and excessive response to whatever had passed between them."
Wu collapsed at the front of the stairs, Zhong "staggered head-long into the garden" collapsed and died.
Wu's mother sobbed throughout the opening address. Other family members were also in attendance along with Victim Support.
When the Crown began taking the jury through crime scene photos, Wu's mother put her handkerchief to her mouth and was led from the court room.
Wang's lawyer, Thomas Sutcliffe, said he would argue that Wang was acting in self defence.
He said, as his client saw it, "this was a struggle to the death".
Sutcliffe said how the kitchen knife came to be in the upstairs bedroom was a key matter and he would argue that it was taken there by one of the deceased "and from that point the conflict unfolded".
He will also argue that Wu's fatal wounds were caused during a violent struggle over the hunting knife and Wang did not inflict Zhong's fatal wound at all "but Wu, thrashing about with the knife, caused the fatal wound".
The trial has been set down for one month in front of Justice Rebecca Ellis and a jury of four men and eight women.
Up to 54 witnesses could be called.
The trial will draw on spherical photography that will allow Crown and counsel to take the jury through a virtual tour of the scene and the house.
Glubb said it would be like "walking through a house like an open home".
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