Insanity defence in Wire Reddington murder trial as lawyer cites schizophrenia, lack of evidence

Wire Manuel Reddington in the High Court at Wellington where he denies a charge of murder. Photo / Catherine Hutton

A lawyer for murder-accused Wire Reddington has told a jury there isn’t enough circumstantial evidence to convict his client of murdering Jamie Gill in Wairarapa in 2023 and has instead pointed the blame at someone else.

But he also told jurors if they think there is enough evidence, they should consider Reddington’s possible schizophrenia as an insanity defence.

Reddington is on trial in the High Court at Wellington accused of the June 2023 murder in Carterton but his lawyer claims he is innocent and his brother Tipene Reddington is actually to blame.

Opening the defence case, Ian Hard told the jury there was a lack of evidence linking his client to Gill’s death.

“All of this evidence you’ve heard against Wire Reddington has been circumstantial, nobody saw Jamie Gill being killed,” he said.

The Crown’s case is that Gill died as a result of a fight at the rural Carterton property. On the night of the killing, the only people at the property were the Reddington brothers, their mother and Gill.

The 32-year-old was allegedly cut and beaten before being strangled and then dragged down the property’s driveway. He was then dumped in a paddock, face down in a ditch and left to suffocate.

Several bits of his ears were also missing and a piece found nearby that was believed to have come from the top of one ear had Reddington’s DNA on it.

While Hard told the jury the defence did not think the Crown’s case was sufficient to conclude his client’s guilt, if the jury did, they should consider a possible defence of insanity.

Hard told the jury Reddington received a diagnosis of psychosis at 22.

He said forensic psychiatrist Dr Shanmukh Lokesh, would appear as a defence witness and tell the court if the people who had given that diagnosis had delved into his case then, schizophrenia could well have been a possible diagnosis.

That was followed by a probable diagnosis of schizophrenia in 2017.

“If the doctor was right and he was suffering from schizophrenia in 2017 and if he was probably getting worse when he was about 21 and the symptoms were more full-on, if that’s the case then that doesn’t go away,” Hard said.

“What the Crown say in this case is this is just a drug-induced psychosis. Totally his fault. Too much methamphetamine, too much cannabis, out of control, coupled with alcohol, totally his fault,” he said.

But Hard told the court Lokesh’s evidence would be the schizophrenia came first, the onset of Reddington’s illness coinciding with his criminal offending.

Hard did no’t deny his client had taken methamphetamine, cannabis and alcohol, but Lokesh would explain these were “maladaptive remedies” taken by Reddington to manage his symptoms, he said.

Hard said the forensic psychiatrist’s evidence would be that the number of his schizophrenic clients who didn’t use illicit drugs “was about zero”.

Jamie Gill died on a Carterton property on 25 June, 2023. Photo / Supplied.

The evidence so far

Opening the defence’s case Hard touched on parts of the Crown’s case.

He said his client has consistently denied killing Gill and had never waivered from that.

Concerning the DNA evidence, Hard said it was not possible to say when the saliva found on a piece of Gill’s ear was put there. Similarly, Reddington’s blood found on the victim’s clothing could be explained by earlier scuffles the pair had.

He also asked the jury to consider the actions of Reddington’s older brother, telling the jury Tipene’s demeanour warranted careful attention and consideration.

On the morning Gill’s body was found, a witness described Tipene as frightening and so angry his eyes were bulging.

Then, a month after Gill’s death, Tipene was in a car with his mother and sister where he was allegedly angry with them, spitting on them, threatening to kill them and hitting each one with a wheel brace. He also allegedly confessed to the killing.

As they crossed over a short bridge the driver, Sherilee Knight, gave evidence that Tipene allegedly said: “This is where I killed Jamie, I told Wire we should have just chucked him off the bridge, but no, our stupid a*** brother had to drag him back to the paddock”.

“I f***in’ told them I’d finish it off because he didn’t have the balls to do it.”

Tipene repeatedly denied this while giving evidence himself and a Corrections expert said data from his ankle monitoring bracelet showed he was nowhere near the bridge on the night of Gill’s death.

But Hard told the jury this wasn’t a confession whispered in a pub, across a table and said the context was important.

“The context of this is he’s beating up three women, severely and on the evidence of Sherilee Knight nearly killing one of them. And on that context and that setting he admits to killing someone else. It’s quite incredible.”

The trial before Justice Jason McHerron continues tomorrow.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media advisor at the Ministry of Justice.