The father of the man accused of killing road worker George Taiaroa says police initially accused him of masterminding the murder.
When being interviewed by police, Max Winders told the court police tried to blame him for Mr Taiaroa's death. Mr Winders told the court he could not have been involved in the killing of Mr Taiaroa as he didn't know who he was, had never spoken to him or ever seen him.
He also told police that his son, Quinton Winders, could not have committed the crime as he didn't know anything about Mr Taiaroa either.
Max and Quinton were involved in a minor road crash at road works at Atiamuri on March 12, 2013. But on that day Max told the court he never saw Mr Taiaroa or his stop sign.
"I was just driving along, minding my own business and Quin suddenly yelled out, 'Stop!' and so I slammed on the brakes," he said.
Max ended up in the middle of traffic and reversed his trailer unit, crashing into a blue Ford Telstar. The Crown says this minor crash was the motive for Mr Taiaroa's killing a week later.
Asked what made Quinton yell out "stop", Max told the court it was because Quinton had seen a man holding a stop sign down an embankment.
He says Quinton exchanged phone numbers with the people they crashed into, and Max accepted full responsibility for what had happened.
When being questioned by defence counsel, Jonathan Temm, Max said he didn't discuss the incident further with his son.
More than a week later, when the owner of the Ford Telstar phoned Max about getting his car repaired, Max was told about Mr Taiaroa's death. Max told the Court his response was that he didn't know it had happened.
Max confirmed his son, Quinton, owned a blue Jeep Cherokee. After Max found out police were looking for a blue Jeep, he told his son that he "can expect to be pulled up" because of it - but says his son wasn't overly concerned.
Max also recounted when police turned up to search his home in Rotorua, saying "I thought I was dreaming - I saw three men with machine guns walking towards me".
The trial continues.
Newshub.
