After the verdict was delivered three security guards had to seize Wilson and take him away. Video / NZ Herald
A jury in the High Court of Auckland has ruled that a man got so enraged by a baby crying while he was trying to play PlayStation that he killed the infant.
Boston Liam Wilson, 23, has been found guilty of murdering his nephew, Chance Aipolani-Nielson, aged 10 months, at a house in Birkdale on Auckland’s North Shore on December 15, 2021.
After the verdict was delivered three security guards had to seize Wilson and take him away.
In a police interview after the baby’s death, Wilson said, “I lost control.” The Crown case at his trial this past fortnight was that violently shook Chance to stop him crying, then threw him at a table, fracturing his skull.
“He tried to save the baby, not harm him,” his defence lawyer Lorraine Smith told the jury.
His version of events was that he heard Chance cough, and went in to check on him but saw that he had gone white and was non-responsive. In his panic he “lost control” of the baby and dropped Chance on to a bedside table. He then shook the baby in an attempt to revive him. Finally he rushed out of the room to phone for help, but struck Chance’s head against a doorframe.
“This unfortunate series of accidents did not happen,” said Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock. In cross-examination, she said to Wilson, “It’s not true, is it?”
“You can’t admit it, can you? You are struggling to admit it to yourself,” she said to him. “I suggest that after shaking Chance with significant force, because he just wouldn’t stop crying, you threw him in the direction of the table, his head hit the table and he fell on the ground. That’s what happened, isn’t it.”
“Not correct,” he said.
Jurors were shown this photo of 10-month-old Chance Aipolani-Nielson wearing his new Christmas present outfit on the morning of December 15, 2021, just hours before emergency responders found him critically hurt inside his Birkdale home. His uncle, Boston Wilson, was subsequently charged with murder. Photo / Supplied
The jury of 11 reached its verdict of murder at 12.50pm after they were sent out to begin deliberations on Monday at 1pm. They indicated on Tuesday afternoon they could not reach an agreement.
On Wednesday at 11.20am they sent a note to the judge saying they were making progress towards a unanimous verdict.
Justice Christine Gordon had given the jury a question line to consider, including, “Are you sure that he intentionally struck Chance’s head, or intentionally shook Chance?” If they were sure, they had to consider the question, “Are you sure that when he struck Chance’s head, he intended to kill Chance?”
Chance’s mother, Azure Aipolani-Nielson, was present at the verdict. When she gave evidence, she said that Chance was in perfectly normal health when she left for work on December 15, 2021. Prosecutors dismissed Wilson’s testimony that the baby had gone white. A neighbour heard a baby crying at the exact time when Wilson claimed Chance was non-responsive.
Chance and his mother lived at the house with Wilson, his partner Darien Aipolani-Williams (Azure’s sister and Chance’s aunt) and their four preschool daughters. Witnesses described Wilson as a loving and gentle parent. Family also said he wanted to adopt Chance, but the baby’s mother said in court that she had not been told about it.
“His parenting is a distraction,” prosecutor McClintock told the jury in her closing address. “It doesn’t tell you what he did in those moments that caused Chance’s death. He is a person who in those moments completely lost control.”
The verdict of murder favoured the Crown’s argument that he entered Chance’s room because the baby was crying while he was playing Call of the Wild, a hunting game, on PlayStation. He shook the baby and then struck Chance’s head on the table, “in that order”, said McClintock.
“Either he fired Chance to the ground and hit his head on the table, or slammed him against it. We know the head hit it at significant pace.”
A medical expert compared the impact to a child falling from a one-storey building.
His defence lawyer said the portrait of Wilson enraged by a baby crying did not add up. “Chance was the boy he wanted,” said Lorraine Smith. “You do not storm into a room and kill the son you wanted.”
Chance died on December 17, 2021. He was 310 days old.
