Dead man's predictions 'coming true', court told

Predictions his dead brother made 10 years ago while mentally disturbed are coming true, Koha Newton told a High Court murder trial at Rotorua today.

The school teacher and former first division rugby player told the murder hearing of Christopher Allan Heenan for the murder of Raukawa Newton at Rotorua in October 2007, that his late brother had said technology and volcanic eruptions would consume and cleanse the world.

"It's funny what's happening with the floods and that, to be honest, I now wonder if what he said was nonsense," Koha Newton said.

Police claim Heenan stabbed Newton in the chest after a friendly drinking session between two mates in the lounge of a suburban flat turned into an argument. The blade allegedly entered Newton's body between his collarbone and top rib.

Heenan, an artist, carver and tattooist, 51, has pleaded not guilty.

Mr Newton said his brother had never been aggressive and his psychiatric condition had improved markedly over the years. At the time of his death he had been mentally stable.

The pair of them had a great relationship and he loved his brother dearly.

Immediately before his death he'd had a disagreement with his partner and was staying with the witness. He was in an optimistic mind-frame and making plans for the future.

The last time he saw his brother he told him he was off for a few drinks with the accused, showing him a taonga (treasure) in the form of a bone carving the accused had made for him.

Cross-examined by defence counsel John Bergseng, Mr Newton said his brother had been an "amazing" chef and spent time in the territorial army.

If he had arguments with his partner he tended to "go bush to centre himself among nature".

He agreed his brother was a long-term cannabis user.

Raukawa Newton's daughter Maryanne Short told the court her parents separated when she was an infant. When her father was having major psychiatric problems she was not allowed to see him but would "sneak" visits to his house.

"He would cry for up to two hours, he was so excited to see me."

As she grew older she was able to see her father openly and had never been afraid of him.

"He was the nicest person most people had the pleasure of getting to know," she said.

She believed her father smoked cannabis to sooth and relax him.

When he called at her home the night he died he had wanted some catch-up time with her and asked if he could stay because he didn't want to be a burden to his brother.

She had agreed and shown him where the key was kept.

Cross-examined, she said if she thought her father was a dangerous man she would not have issued the invitation. "There was no way I'd endanger my flatmates."

Her father had taken out life insurance to make sure she and his other children were financially secure if he died.

"He was proud of that, letting me know what he had done, he had worried he could not give us the world."

Crown witness Taylor Matthew Arral said he had smoked cannabis oil with Heenan the night of Mr Newton's murder, seeing him arrive at Heenan's home as he left.

To prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch's suggestion that the defence may suggest he had killed Raukawa Newton or stabbed Heenan, Mr Arral said he had no reason to.

The trial is before Justice Timothy Brewer and a jury of seven men and five women.

- NZPA