Jodie Shannon Hughes has been accused of murdering Taranaki farm worker Jacob Mills Ramsay in July last year. Photo / Tara Shaskey
A woman accused of taking part in the murder of a farm worker sent a “love letter” to her killer partner in prison declaring she did not regret her “harmless” involvement.
But the Crown has suggested Jodie Shannon Hughes’ involvement was far from harmless, and that she in fact incited the deadly attack on Jacob Mills Ramsay.
In her cross-examination of Hughes, Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke put to her that she was the reason Ramsay is dead.
“You kicked it all off,” Clarke suggested, to which Hughes said, “No, I didn’t.”
Clarke alleged Hughes had been “amping up” her partner, William Candy, and imploring him to deal to Ramsay over money he owed.
“Finally, Mr Candy was doing what you had been wanting him to do. He gave him a hiding, and it was a hiding that ended Mr Ramsay’s life,” Clarke put to her.
“While you might not understand the legalities of party liability, you had started it all.”
When defence lawyer Tiffany Cooper, KC, re-examined her client, she raised Clarke’s suggestion Hughes encouraged the attack.
“Did you ever want William to assault [Ramsay],” she asked Hughes.
“No, never. I wanted him to confront him, but not hurt him,” the defendant replied.
On Wednesday, Hughes continued to give evidence in her own defence in the High Court at New Plymouth, where she is on trial for the murder of Ramsay on July 29 last year.
Hughes, 31, was charged alongside Candy and Ethan Webster, who have both admitted to killing the Taranaki father of three and were sentenced to life imprisonment in March.
The men said Ramsay owed them both money and, on the day of his death, Candy gave Ramsay a beating at the Ōakura Cemetery before forcing him into Hughes’ vehicle and taking him back to a dairy farm in Ōaonui, South Taranaki, where they all worked and lived in separate farmhouses.
At the Kina Rd farm, the attack by Candy, 39, continued and Webster, 19, jumped in and delivered a number of blows and stomps to their co-worker’s head.
Candy then chained Ramsay to the back of the car, and he and Webster dragged him for almost a kilometre along the farm’s tanker track.
His body was dumped into a rubbish pit, where it was found two days later.
During her cross-examination, Clarke said after Hughes was arrested, she told police, “I’ve tried to feel bad about the death, but I can’t.”
“Because I didn’t do it,” Hughes responded.
“I feel bad about what ‘we’ did. Those are words that you used,” Clarke continued.
“I’ve always used ‘we’. Me as a partner, as one,” Hughes said.
Clarke suggested Hughes had no regret for her alleged role in the offending, and only rued having met Ramsay and being owed money.
Hughes told Clarke she did regret her involvement.
However, in a “love letter” written by Hughes to Candy in prison, she penned, “I have no regrets on my parts because my parts were harmless, my parts weren’t harming him.”
But Hughes, who accepted she composed the letter in March, told Candy she did regret meeting Ramsay.
“If you never invited him over I would never have got high, I wouldn’t have been owed money. I never would have burgled him, I never would have kidnapped him,” she wrote.
Clarke then drew Hughes’ attention to another excerpt.
“Jake Ramsay’s not even eight months dead then, and you are still describing him to Mr Candy as a drug-f***ed piece of s***,” Clarke said.
“Yes, I did. I didn’t mean that. That’s how I see everybody that’s on drugs. I see myself as that,” Hughes responded, confirming what she had written about Ramsay.
When Clarke suggested Hughes was still blaming the dead farm worker, she said she only blamed Candy.
During her questioning of Hughes, Clarke pointed out Hughes had said in evidence she did not like lying, referring to her distrust of Candy.
“But it’s alright for you to lie, Ms Hughes?” Clarke asked.
Clarke suggested Hughes told a number of “blatant lies” in her police statements, which she signed as accurate.
“You have no hesitation lying when it suits you,” Clarke alleged.
Hughes accepted she had lied to police.
Under re-examination, she told Cooper she had lied because she was trying to protect Candy and her family.
During her evidence-in-chief, which concluded this morning, Hughes said she asked Candy on the morning after the attack if Ramsay was at work and he had told her “no”.
Candy said he took a farm bike and drove “right around the hole”, referring to the pit, and Ramsay was not there.
“He must be at home recovering”, Hughes claimed Candy had told her.
“It made me feel better,” she said.
But the following day when Ramsay’s body was found, Candy told Hughes, “We need to talk, Jake’s dead”.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
She questioned Candy about how he had checked the pit, and claimed he told her “he didn’t think to look in the hole”.
But the court has heard Ramsay’s body was found to the side of the pit, not inside the hole.
In the days that followed, Candy and Webster were stood down from their jobs and Hughes and Candy were pulled over by police while out driving.
Both their phones and Hughes’ vehicle were seized. Candy was arrested on August 3 last year, and following a days-long bender on meth, alcohol and cannabis, Hughes was arrested on August 11.
Yesterday, at the start of Hughes’ evidence, she spoke about her mental health problems, toxic romantic relationships and drug issues.
She detailed drugs as being the cause of beef between her and Ramsay, stating he owed Candy $250 for his share in a bag of meth the three had smoked.
Hughes was angered by this, but began to believe Candy was lying to her about the debt, which sent her spiralling.
She thought the money had been recovered by him in some form and he and Ramsay were secretly smoking meth together.
Her self-described “paranoia” and anger heightened as Candy failed to chase Ramsay up for the cash.
Despite her believing there was no longer a debt, she texted Ramsay, ordering him to pay up.
When she didn’t see the money, she broke into his house and stole two of his TVs. She continued to implore Candy to help recoup the debt.
As the details of the attack on Ramsay were put to Hughes, she maintained she had no idea the violence would, or had, become as serious as it did.
She claimed he was “fine” and conscious the entire time, which conflicted with the evidence of another witness who said Ramsay was unconscious by the time he arrived at the tanker track in Hughes’ vehicle.
At the outset of the trial, she pleaded guilty to kidnapping Ramsay and the burglary of his home but maintained her pleas of not guilty to murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH).
The Crown alleges that while she did not physically harm Ramsay, she was “very much” involved in Candy’s violence towards him, making her a party to the GBH and murder.
The Crown and defence have now concluded their cases and will make closing statements tomorrow.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.
Judge: 'If everyone did that, we would not have any cockles left in our country'.