A jury has started its deliberations at the end of a Hastings man's second trial on a charge of manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend's five-month-old son.
The jury hearing the case against 23-year-old Trent Owen Ngaruhe Hapuku retired from the High Court in Napier just before 1pm having to decide whether anyone else could have caused the death of baby Mikara Ranui Darius Reti.
The boy was pronounced dead in Hawke's Bay Hospital on the night of January 11 last year, soon after Hapuku arrived carrying the child in a blanket and accompanied by baby's mother Jamie Reti.
Mikara died from severe internal bleeding after the splitting of his liver. The Crown says the injury must have happened in the previous hour to 90 minutes when Hapuku was in charge of the child in a sleepout at the Flaxmere home of the boy's grandparents.
Returning to the sleepout from bathing and feeding an older son inside the house, Ms Reti became concerned when she noticed the baby's changed complexion and lack of reponsiveness after Hapuku said her son had vomited during her absence from the room.
The defence used expert evidence to challenge Crown specialists, arguing injuries leading to the death could have occurred several hours earlier and that other possibilities had not been ruled out.
Crown prosecutor Steve Manning suggested Hapuku could have reacted in frustration with the child while being more focused on trying to "clock'' a PlayStation game, but defence counsel Eric Forster said there was no evidence Hapuku had assaulted the boy in any way.
Justice Forrest Miller told the jury of seven men and five women that for Hapuku to be found guilty the Crown had to prove "he was the killer,'' that there was an assault committed by him and it was a "substantial and operating'' cause of death. It also had to exclude the "reasonable possibility'' that it was anyone else.
In a 40-minute summary on the sixth day of the trial, Justice Miller also warned the jury not to take any inferences from the fact that it was a retrial.
- Hawke's Bay Today
