Aftera manhunt that stretched to 50km away in Te Aroha, where streets were closed and cars were searched, Wilson was arrested that afternoon.
Crown prosecutor Jacinda Hamilton said at the hearing that given the lateness of the plea change, an agreed summary of facts on what led to the death of Paparoa, 46, was still to be drawn up.
That would be done within the week, she said.
Justice Campbell convicted Wilson and remanded him in custody for sentencing in August.
During an earlier appearance in the High Court last year tensions ran high as Wilson was heckled by Paparoa’s whānau in the public gallery.
A family member later posted on Facebook that Paparoa preferred to be known as Maree.
“She is a mother, a nana, a sister, an aunty. I won’t talk in past tense as she is still very much so all of the above,” the woman wrote.
She said Paparoa had “a lot of life left to live” before her murder on August 8.
“Her life ended by the hands of Aaron Wilson, her former partner at the time. Yes, he murdered her.”
She said Paparoa “loved hard no matter how broken she was she always knew how to smile through her day”.
“My point in this post is to make her existence known, that she isn’t just a lady in Cambridge who had been murdered. She has a name, a title a family.”
She said the family was angry and they wanted Paparoa’s life to be remembered and her death to be known.
