Western Springs victim died over botched drug deal, court hears

An elderly man who was found in a stairwell in a Western Springs flat last year died after a botched drug deal, a court heard on Tuesday. 

Michael Mulholland, 69, was beaten to death after he allegedly denied a woman went into his apartment to buy drugs on behalf of the man on trial for his murder, prosecutor Kirsten Lummis says. 

Gabriel Yad-Elohim, 30, is charged with killing Mr Mulholland last year in the stairwell of the Western Springs Housing New Zealand block of flats he lived in.

The Crown opened its case in the murder trial on Tuesday at the High Court in Auckland.

Ms Lummis said on 26 September Yad-Elohim went to Karangahape Road "keen to score some drugs". 

He came across a transgender woman, "Tee", who he allegedly asked where he could buy methamphetamine and cannabis, she said.

The two caught a bus to Mr Mulholland's home where the woman went into his apartment with the defendant's $200. Yad-Elohim waited in the stairwell on the landing below, Ms Lummis told the jury.

The woman climbed over the balcony with the money and scaled the building without the defendant's knowledge "so there is no drug deal", she said.

Meanwhile Yad-Elohim was suspicious about why it was taking so long so he knocked on Mr Mulholland's door and asked him, Ms Lummis said.

She said the defendant told the police Mr Mulholland said she was never there.

"Realising he had been swindled he took action," she said.

Yad-Elohim head-butted Mr Mulholland and stomped and kicked his head and torso in a "sustained and brutal attack", she said.

Ms Lummis said the jury would hear evidence that Mr Mulholland received a skull fracture and "traumatic brain injury" and it was the head injuries that caused his death.

Yad-Elohim left Mr Mulholland alone in the stairwell and his body was only found by a neighbour later that evening. 

It prompted police to get the CCTV footage, which showed the attack, Ms Lummis said.

She said when the defendant was interviewed by the police he said he thought he had hospitalised Mr Mulholland for months, not killed him.

The Crown agreed he had a "disease of the mind" with schizophrenia and psychosis diagnoses.

But defence lawyer Annabel Cresswell said the picture was more complex than that.

Yad-Elhom believed God - or a higher power - was talking to him telling him what to do, she said.

"In fact, the name Gabriel Yad-Elohim is a name he gave to himself and to means 'messenger from God'. "

The defence is arguing Yad-Elohim is not guilty by way of insanity.

He was admitted to Te Whetu Tawera, an acute mental health unit, nine days before the killing and was under a compulsory care order, Ms Cresswell told the jury.

Three days prior to the killing the unit was full and Yad-Elohim was reassessed by an on-call specialist who discharged him, she said.

The jury trial is expected to take two weeks.

Newshub.