A man accused of forcing a man off the road in his vehicle before shooting him three times, dead, had felt like there was no justice after an attack when the father of his girlfriend was strangled.

Paula Randall, the mother of Adrian Phillips' former girlfriend, also told Crown prosecutor Rebecca Mann that his mental health had deteriorated after accidentally burning himself in a New Year's bonfire in 2018.

Phillips had poured alcohol on the bonfire with the aim of getting it going when it exploded, leaving him with severe burns and months of hospital treatment.

However, she began noticing further changes in Phillips' behaviour after a fight in January 2020 involving Bayden Williams, Lance Williams, Phillips and Chloe Randall's father.

Chloe Randall told the court yesterday she was horrified at seeing her father being strangled so hard that he lost control of his bodily functions. She said Phillips had tried to help get Williams' father, Lance, off him but was pulled off by the younger Williams.

"Adrian, after the incident ... became frustrated by the lack of what he would have recognised to be the injustice and unfairness of the incident," Paula Randall told the court.

"Adrian feels like ... not enough has been done to bring justice for [her husband], mostly Lance [Williams], about the way that he had assaulted [her husband].

"He didn't understand why the police hadn't followed up."

She exchanged several messages with Phillips two days leading up to the shooting, stating she didn't want him wanting to beat him up.

"I don't want you to beat anyone up. I don't want you in trouble," she texted Phillips.

She said while Phillips was "very distressed" about that January fight, she had "no inkling" that it would lead to what happened.

Bayden Williams was shot dead by his former friend Adrian Phillips. However, Phillips claims he shot him in self defence. Photo / File

On the night of Williams' death, she recalled Chloe coming home early from dinner, with her initially believing that Williams had stood her up.

But as the Facebook posts increased, she then decided to go to Phillips' Ngatea house.

However on arrival, "we couldn't even get into the street".

In questioning from defence counsel Ron Mansfield, Randall agreed that Phillips was not someone to talk about himself.

"He's very quiet and self conscious."

She also confirmed that his sister and her daughter, who was going out with him at the time, had tried to get ACC assistance so he could get help for his mental health struggles resulting from the fire.

Randall said Phillips wasn't a fighter, "not to my knowledge".

"Even if it did get to that point it would just be to get some frustration out and that would be it."

'A little bit erratic'

Bayden Williams' former girlfriend, Chloe Randall, told the High Court at Hamilton how murder accused Adrian Phillips seemed to change after a fight at their flat seven months before the shooting when she went to get her belongings.

The 22-year-old explained how all four of them, including her sister and Phillips, used to get on, but after a fight in January 2020 he started behaving "a little bit erratic".

"We would spend less time together. He was just elsewhere. But we were always good.

"Bayden and Adrian were really good friends at the time and it was just after what me and Bayden went through, Adrian didn't like that.

"He was protecting me."

She and Williams had organised to catch up for dinner the night he died, but he never arrived.

They organised to meet at the Thames Bowling Club so that Phillips wouldn't notice his car in town.

She knew that Phillips was still angry with Williams jnr after the January fight.

"Not that he was going to hurt him, just that he was mad about it, mad at Bayden."

Mansfield questioned her about the physical and psychological violence she'd suffered at the hands of Williams.

"He started to manhandle me, but each time it would get worse," she said.

"He would shove me into a wall. He punched with my son in my arms. He tried to take my son after drinking half a bottle of bourbon and ripped my dress of me."

The trial, before Justice Melanie Harland, is set down for two weeks.

- Belinda Feek, Open Justice