Inquest: Prison staff recount how Hawke's Bay Regional Prison inmate died

The Kolby Heta inquest was conducted by Coroner Peter Ryan at the Hastings district courthouse. Photo / NZME

Prison staff have described the moment a restrained and hooded Kolby Heta wobbled on his feet and went limp before dying in Hawke's Bay Regional Prison.

An inquest into Heta's death also on Wednesday heard that about eight prison officers then formed a line to take turns doing CPR before ambulance staff arrived and told them he had died.

Heta, 33, died in the Mangaroa prison on March 17, 2017 after being handcuffed, hooded and marched for about 30 minutes along prison corridors, resisting strongly all the way.

He was being taken to the prison's at-risk unit after lunging out of his cell to punch a staff member.

A forensic pathologist earlier told the inquest that Heta died from "cardiac death in the setting of restraint".

A former prison nurse, Alwyn Francis, said he conducted three assessments of the handcuffed Heta as he was being moved.

At the first assessment, he asked Heta if he had any pain. Heta replied he had "pain all over his body".

However, Francis said that Heta's pulse and breathing were regular at that point, he had no respiratory distress, his circulation appeared to be all right and he was speaking in full sentences.

Francis conducted a second assessment shortly afterwards and again gave the prison officers approval to keep going.

A very short time later, he said, Heta began "wobbling on his feet". Francis said Heta stumbled and gasped.

He was lowered to the ground and Francis conducted a third assessment, at which he could feel no pulse. Heta's face was pale.

The inquest heard Heta was then released from his cuffs, his clothing was cut from his chest, and the prison officers began CPR.

Jason Mear, then a prison officer but who has since changed jobs within Corrections, said that between the second and third assessment, Heta's body changed and he stopped resisting.

Coroner Peter Ryan asked if Heta had stopped walking, or if he had gone limp.

"He was walking up to that point, and then his body went limp. We were supporting him rather than controlling him."

Former officer Dayle Jones, who has since left the department, said that prisoners resisting control and restraint normally calmed down when out of the sight of other inmates. This was not the case with Heta who "actively resisted a lot more".

The coroner asked if there was anything unusual about Heta's treatment.

"It was better than usual," Jones replied. "It was by the book."

Corrections officer Kim Fraser appeared via video link from the prison and demonstrated the use of a spit hood of the kind placed over Heta's head when he began spitting blood.

Fraser placed the cream-coloured nylon mesh bag over his head and stepped forward to the camera so the coroner could see how the loosely-fitted hood looked. Fraser's glasses and features were visible through the mesh.

The hearing of evidence concluded on Wednesday and the coroner gave the Department of Corrections' counsel Mercia Reddy four weeks to make submissions.

Ryan's findings would follow.