Johnnie Puna appeals conviction for brutal murder of Mark Beale

Johnnie Puna was intoxicated at the time of the attack, his lawyer said. Photo / File

The young man who savagely attacked a Haumoana father of two and urinated on him before leaving him for dead has appealed his conviction for murder.

Johnnie Puna, 20, was sentenced earlier this year to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 14 years for the brutal murder of Mark Geoffrey Beale.

He was 19-years-old when he murdered Beale, leaving him with unsurvivable brain injuries near the Tukituki river mouth on Waitangi Day last year.

Puna's lawyers Eric Forster and Alex McPherson took his conviction appeal to the Court of Appeal in Wellington this afternoon, where they argued mistakes had been made in the trial judge's summing up.

"The direction about the effect of Mr Puna's obvious intoxication wasn't adequately made," Forster told the Herald.

Puna was intoxicated at the time of the attack, and the jury needed to consider whether it could be proven beyond reasonable doubt that he appreciated Beale would die from the beating.

Forster said there was not a sufficient caution given either to the account provided by an eyewitness who "had reason to give false evidence" as he himself was a suspect in the killing.

Finally, the third issue the appeal was based on was that the judge said in the summing up that the attack lasted for an hour, when it actually lasted for 40 minutes, Forster said.

Puna attacked 45-year-old Beale just hours after meeting him in a chance encounter in the seaside settlement on the evening of February 5.

Mark Beale was found with unsurvivable brain injuries on Waitangi Day. Photo / Supplied

The pair had gone to Beale's home to drink alcohol that evening when the 45-year-old accidentally tripped and pulled Puna down with him.

Puna became enraged at the accident and launched his violent attack on Beale, kicking him in the head 13 times.

Beale was found fatally injured by members of the public on Waitangi Day morning. He died the next day after his life support was turned off.

Puna was found guilty of the murder following a four-day trial last November.

The Court of Appeal judges reserved their decision.