Tamehana Huata has been charged with the manslaughter and injuring with intent to injure his 2 year-old stepson at his Flaxmere home in October 2015.
Tamehana Huata has been charged with the manslaughter and injuring with intent to injure his 2 year-old stepson at his Flaxmere home in October 2015.
Tamehana Huata has just been found guilty of the manslaughter and injuring with intent to injure his two year old stepson Matiu Wereta at their home in Flaxmere in October 2015.
The jury verdict was returned at the High Court in Napier today after six hours of deliberations.
Emergency serviceswere called to the home to find Matiu unconscious with numerous marks on his body and a serious head injury on the morning of October 12.
The boy died in Hawke's Bay Hospital as a result of the serious head injury two days later.
The Crown's evidence presented to the jury last week was that the serious head injuries, which led to the death of Matiu, were caused by multiple blows to the head, not by him falling into a brick wall as claimed by the defence.
The jury began deliberations at 2pm yesterday and at 5pm the judge allowed the jurors to go home for the night and resume again at 9am this morning. ome at the time.
