Trio admit manslaughter in 2019 Hastings killing of Philippine man

Three men at High Court in Napier have pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and aggravated robbery after the death of a man in Hastings. Photo / File

Three men have pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and aggravated robbery relating to the bashing of a man in a sex-debt recovery mission in Hastings last year.

According to an agreed summary of facts, victim and Philippine national Jermaine Arias Ramos, 33, was lured to a property in Ferguson St, Akina, on April 1, 2019, robbed of $640 and bashed by at least one of the men, including being struck on the head with a glass vase.

Ramos, who had been living in Waipukurau, died at the scene. Medical experts later determined the injuries were among multiple factors in the death, including Ramos' use of methamphetamine and a heart condition.

The admissions came in the High Court in Napier today, averting a trial which was to have been held next year, with the men earlier this year pleading not guilty to a charge of murder.

Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker said it was accepted the murder charge should be amended to manslaughter.

In court were Steven Matthew Kingi, said by the Crown to have been a 40-year-old patched Black Power member at the time of the attack, and gang associate Stewart Hubbard and prospect Jessee James Burns, each aged 27.

The men were arrested only in May this year, but the 36-year-old woman who had claimed the debt was arrested at the time and since been sentenced on the robbery charge, with police and the Crown accepting she had told the men she wanted no violence and had no part in it.

The summary said the woman contacted Kingi on the day before the death and told him Ramos had left a Havelock North motel and failed to pay the full agreed price for sexual services during the night, in which she also provided him methamphetamine.

With the debt apparently she contacted Kingi again on April 1 and accepted his suggestion that she invite the man back to her address, which she did by offering more methamphetamine and possibly more sexual services.

Kingi enlisted Burns who in turn contacted Hubbard and the trio met the woman at her home and discussed the woman getting Ramos into the house and how they would get the money he owed.

The woman later told police she told the men she did not want any violence and did not expect there to be anything more than a punch to the face.

The trio waited in a car parked nearby until Ramos arrived, having just obtained $640 from a cash machine.

The woman invited him inside, turned on a kettle and went into a bedroom to check on her young child. It was at that time the trio entered the house and demanded money from the victim, who was then assaulted, including being bashed in the head with a glass vase.

There were other multiple injuries.

The men left, and the woman re-entered her lounge and found Ramos on the floor, bleeding from the head.

She later told police she believed he had still been alive but in panic she did not contact emergency services, instead calling a friend and asking him to make the call. An ambulance arrived, but Ramos had died.

The Crown said the respective parts in the assault were not known and while Kingi was more "culpable" in the robbery, all three were "equally culpable" for the manslaughter.

Kingi was represented by barrister Matthew Phelps, Hubbard by Eric Forster, and Burns by Leo Lafferty.

Counsel indicated cultural reports would be sought in relation to each defendant, and indicated their clients would be available to take part in restorative justice processes if possible, but Clayton said it remained to be seen if it were appropriate.

Justice Christine Grice, sitting via audio visual link from Wellington, remanded the men in custody for sentencing at the High Court in Napier on February 11.