As two men with robbery on their minds tried to break down his apartment door, Joesph Tahana had two choices, the Crown says.
Fight or flight.
“Mr Tahana chose the latter,” Crown prosecutor Henry Steele said.
“He chose to flee by the only means available to him, by climbing over his balcony.
“A decision which ultimately cost him his life.”
He tried to edge along the balustrade while dangling 12 stories up before losing his grip and falling into an alleyway below, the prosecutor said.
Steele closed the Crown case in the Auckland High Court manslaughter trial of Amigo Jacobi Sinclair-Beere and Lance Nielsen on Wednesday afternoon.
The men deny joint manslaughter and burglary charges. Their lawyers say the Crown case is plagued with unknowns.
Steele told a jury the men went to Tahana’s central Auckland apartment in the early hours of February 19 last year to rob him.
They snuck into the St Paul St tower near the Auckland University of Technology, went up to the 12th floor and tried to smash their way in, he alleged.
That can be shown by the damage to the door, consistent with someone trying to shoehorn and smash it open, and the fact Nielsen is captured on CCTV with a long, thin object, possibly a crowbar or similar, in his backpack, Steele said.
Tahana sold small amounts of cannabis to support himself and his young son, the Crown said.
The court earlier heard how he was fearful of gang members who may not have taken kindly to him selling on what they perceived as their turf.
Shortly after the men are captured on CCTV entering his apartment building, Tahana texted a friend to say “I’m under attack”.
Around the same time, Sinclair-Beere texted an associate to say “call asap” and “bro we need help”.
Neighbours told of hearing the sounds of banging, which Steele said was consistent with men trying to batter down the door, before noises of furniture moving.
These sounds were followed by a sudden quietness broken by a dull thud, one neighbour said.
Handprints on the balustrade are consistent with Tahana edging along as he dangled from the balcony, before losing his grip and falling to his death, the Crown said.
After hearing the thud, a neighbour looked out his window and saw Tahana’s lifeless body lying in an alleyway beneath his apartment.
To reach a guilty verdict on the manslaughter charges, Steele told the jury the men need not have have intended for Tahana to fall to his death.
“It’s clear Mr Tahana was fearful of the defendants and it’s clear fear caused him to climb over his balcony,” Steele said.
“Did they cause him fear? Yes.
“Did that fear cause him to climb over the balcony? Yes.”
Earlier in the trial, the jury watched a CCTV montage compiled by police tracking the defendants’ movements across the city.
They arrive at the St Paul St apartment about 2.15am. Sinclair-Beere goes around a rear entrance, over a wall and enters the apartment via a fire exit, allowing Nielsen in via the front door.
They go to the lift and are seen pressing a button near the top of the keypad and are seen leaving the same way a few minutes later.
Street cameras show them heading onto Symonds St then ducking down via St Paul’s Church and the Auckland University grounds to the Columbia apartments in Whitaker Pl, where they are again captured on CCTV.
Steele said by this point, Sinclair-Beere’s demeanour had changed.
The prosecutor described the man as looking agitated, like a “cat on a hot tin roof”.
“He knows at this point what has happened to Mr Tahana,” Steele said.
The men eventually make their way to the Heritage Hotel on the other side of the Queen St gully, then back to Sinclair-Beere’s Manukau Rd hotel.
Somewhere between the Heritage Hotel and Manukau Rd, Nielsen’s backpack, in which there appeared to be a long thin object, disappears, Steele said.
During his opening remarks, Sinclair-Beere’s lawyer Mark Ryan told the jury his client did not do anything to cause Tahana to fear violence. They were there to buy drugs, not to rob or threaten Tahana, Ryan said.
Gowan Duff, acting for Nielsen, said there was insufficient evidence and the only way the jury could reach a guilty verdict was via guessing.
“Guesswork which seeks to fill the cavernous holes in the Crown case,” Duff said.
The trial continues with the defence closing tomorrow.
The man harassed children, neighbours, tradesmen and blocked roads with his wheelchair.