Sixteen-year-old Trinity Oliver was found dead near a Manurewa train station in September 2021. Photo / Supplied
Sixteen-year-old Trinity Oliver was found dead near a Manurewa train station in September 2021. Photo / Supplied
A South Auckland man accused of having strangled a 16-year-old girl before dumping her unclothed body on the side of the road had previously been hospitalised for methamphetamine-induced psychosis, his lawyer said today as the defence began presenting evidence at his murder trial.
Vikhil Krishna, now 24, was found with his bags packed and an airline ticket to Fiji when police executed a search warrant at his home in September 2021, just days after Trinity Oliver was found dead near a Manurewa train station.
The two, who appear to have been in a prior relationship, had smoked methamphetamine together before a violent incident that resulted in her death. Prosecutors, who began presenting evidence a week and a half ago and finished yesterday, have said the strangulation was intentional — Oliver’s death being caused by a mobile phone charging cord Krishna used as a ligature.
But defence lawyer Ron Mansfield, KC, repeated his assertion during an opening address to jurors today that his client didn’t intend to kill Oliver and his mind was too addled by a days-long methamphetamine bender to have realised his actions were putting her life at risk.
“Mr Krishna doesn’t deny that he was responsible for Ms Oliver’s death — sadly, he was,” Mansfield said.
But without murderous intent, his client should instead be found guilty of manslaughter, he suggested.
Mansfield also suggested Krishna had been suffering psychosis as a result of the methamphetamine use.
Vikhil Krishna appears in the Auckland High Court charged with the murder of 16-year-old Trinity Oliver. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Five years prior to Oliver’s death, in December 2016, Krishna had spent six days in the Counties Manukau Mental Health Unit at Middlemore Hospital after a bizarre incident in which fellow motorists grew concerned over his erratic driving, which included driving on the rims of his car after the tyres blew.
After being forcefully removed from his car by police, he told authorities that gang members had been following him in up to 30 vehicles and he had been leaning back in his seat so as to avoid being shot. He thought the gang members could read his mind, he said.
He was diagnosed as suffering drug-induced psychosis caused by methamphetamine use, according to a report read aloud to jurors.
Krishna was admitted to the same unit the following year after his parents reported odd behaviour, including claiming to have been dropped off at home by a friend despite not having left the house in the first place. He was again diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis, but this time resulting from the use of synthetic cannabis, the defence pointed out.
Dr David Menkes, a Yale University-trained expert in psychological medicine and University of Auckland professor, was the first witness called by the defence today.
An “astonishingly high” number of methamphetamine users — as high as 40 per cent, according to one scholarly review — will experience some degree of psychosis, Menkes testified. One of the biggest risk factors for psychotic reactions to meth is having experienced a previous psychotic episode, regardless of whether it was drug-induced, he said.
Even when not experiencing a psychotic episode, it’s common when taking higher doses for people to become paranoid and suspicious, Menkes said. Quickness to anger, resulting in violence in cases where someone might not act out when sober, is also “extremely well documented”, he said of the drug.
“That is a real problem with the drug and a reason why it is a controlled drug almost everywhere,” Menkes said.
The only other witness called by the defence was Dr Clare Healy, a Christchurch-based GP and forensic physician specialising in physical assault examinations. She estimated having examined between 50 and 100 patients who reported non-fatal strangulations, with roughly 5 to 10 per cent of those cases reportedly involving ligatures.
In her opinion, it is possible a red linear mark found across the front of the teenager’s neck was caused by her own necklace being imprinted on the skin during a chokehold or manual pressure. It’s also possible, she conceded, that it was the result of a ligature being used.
Jurors were shown post-mortem photos of the neck marking last week.
If jurors can’t be sure that a ligature was used, they can use that in assessing the defendant’s intention on the night he killed Oliver, Mansfield said.
“Most of you ... when you were at school, would have seen people put other people in choke holds,” he said. “A lot of people within the community, and in particular young people, don’t understand the risks involved with restraints of that type.”
People use such holds often without intending to murder someone, he surmised.
Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker pointed out during cross-examination of the GP that pathologist Dr Rexon Tse, who testified last week, believed the mark to have been more likely caused by a ligature than a necklace impression. Had it been an impression mark caused by a chokehold, there would have likely been less of a marking in the middle of the neck due to the elbow joint, Tse suggested.
“I’m not a pathologist. Dr Tse has probably seen a lot more ligature injuries than I have,” Healy responded. “However, I have seen imprint injuries around the neck [in non-ligature strangulation cases].”
The defence rested their case this afternoon without calling Krisha to the witness box.
That’s because he was delusional at the time and it would be difficult for him, now sober, to describe what was going through his mind, Mansfield said. He suggested the Crown had shown “absolutely no apparent motive for him wanting to kill” the teen.
The trial, before Justice Peter Andrew in the High Court at Auckland, is expected to adjourn tomorrow. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Thursday morning.
