Manslaughter charge

Press, 25 August 1983, Page 4

Manslaughter charge

A Samoan man found dead on a Hay Street driveway on July 5 had previously been told that any further injuries to his jaw would cause his death, the District Court heard yesterday.

Sale Seela Pauli, aged 23, unemployed, from Western Samoa, has been charged with killing Ikenasio Taimalie, thereby committing manslaughter. He was represented at a depositions hearing yesterday by Miss E. H. B. Thompson, and Sergeant W. J. McCormick' prosecuted for the police. Eight of the eighteen prosecution witnesses gave evidence in person yesterday, three with the help of an interpreter.

Messrs J. B. Andersen and J. N. Taylor, Justices of the Peace, found that there was a case against the defendant and remanded him to appear in the High Court on September 26 on $lOOO bail with a surety for $lOOO. One of the residents of the Hay Street address, Fteuati Petty-Borne, told the Court he had known the deceased in Samoa. During cross-examination by Miss Thompson he said he knew of an incident there when the deceased had been hit in the face with a stone, breaking his jaw. ' The deceased, who was also known as Kolila, had been told that if he ever had any further injuries to his face it would be very serious ... “It would cause his death.” Laalaai Petelo Amuia said he and the defendant had been drinking at the New Bromley Hotel during the evening of July 4. They had each had about three bottles of beer when Kolila arrived. Mr Amuia said Kolila shared their beer and he invited both Kolila and the defendant back to his home for a meal. They bought

three flagons of beer which they drank before they ate. He said they were not really drunk, but agreed with Sergeant McCormick that they had had a fair bit to drink. Kolila and the defendant left together as Kolila was going to drive the defendant back to his (defendant’s) brother’s Hay Street house.

Mr Amuia said he had known Kolila for about seven years. He said he was a very gentle, happy-go-lucky man. He had only known the defendant about six months. Although he did not know him very well, he said he was also a happy man, and in reply to a question from Sergeant McCormick, he said he had not seen the defendant fighting when he had been drinking.

Shortly after the defendant and Kolila arrived at the Hay Street house, at about 1 a.m., Feala Pauli (the defendant’s brother) said he heard a fight outside. He looked out the window and saw the defendant and when he went outside he saw Kolila lying on the ground. Mrs Fia Pauli said Kolila’s face was covered in blood, which appeared to be coming from his nose.

Mr and Mrs Pauli, and Mr Petty-Borne tried to revive him. Mr Pauli said he shook him, slapped him on the cheek, and poured water over him. Mrs Pauli said the two men rolled him over and rubbed his body. When they could not revive him Mr Pauli told his wife to call an ambulance and the police. Replying to questions from Miss Thompson, Mr Pauli said he did not know that Kolila was angry with him, nor that Kolila had told the defendant that he was a trouble-maker. The defendant later admitted to Detective Leslie Halswell that he had had a fight with the deceased. In evidence read to the court,

Detective Halswell said the defendant said Kolila had become argumentative and was upset with his (the defendant’s) brother. He said when they arrived at the Hay Street house Kolila punched him so he punched him back twice on the jaw. When Kolila fell to the ground he had tried to help but had been chased away by his brother.

In a statement to the detective, the defendant said he was surprised and upset that Kolila had died and he had not meant to hurt him. He denied kicking the deceased. Evidence from a Christchurch pathologist, Dr Patrick Kelleher, was read to the Court by consent. Dr Kelleher said that when he carried out a post-mortem later on July 5 the deceased’s face was covered with numerous bruises and abrasions, and a pattern, probably from the sole of a shoe. In his opinion the deceased had died of a cerebral haemorrhage. When Detective Raymond John Brownlee went to a Hereford Street flat that morning he found the defendant asleep on a mattress on the floor. He told the court that he found a pair of Bata Bullet shoes the defendant said he had been wearing that night. The shoes had a distinctive pattern on the soles which appeared to be identical to a pattern found on the deceased’s face. t Blood stains found on the right shoe were consistent with the deceased’s blood group, according to a D.S.I.R. analyst, Mr Peta Stringer, whose evidence was also read to the Court.

Miss Thompson asked the Court not to be side-tracked by the evidence of the footprint on the deceased’s face. She said when the defendant was chased off the property the deceased was lying face down.