Zhane Faiers is alleged to have driven “like a woman possessed”.
After lining her car up towards her “sometimes” partner she’s alleged to have smashed into him, sending him up onto the windscreen and roof, before slamming on to the road, head first.
Nearly three weeks later, Ropati Shortland died of his significant head injuries in Waikato Hospital, and the charge Faiers was facing was upgraded to murder.
Now, the 25-year-old woman is on trial in the High Court at Hamilton defending the charge.
Her counsel, Mark Sturm today told a jury she admitted being the driver and causing Shortland’s death but denies she had any murderous intent from the incident on May 2, 2022.
Jurors will hear how the Hamilton woman was threatened and “effectively kidnapped” by Shortland during the early hours of that day, he said.
Crown prosecutor Jacinda Hamilton said the couple had a troubled relationship. She added it was also fair to say that Shortland was having personal struggles of his own.
The day he died, he had assaulted another former partner, and mother to his baby, before being arrested and appearing in the Hamilton District Court.
His brother, Isaiah, waited for him to appear as his sister, Camella, organised with another relative to pick up his vehicle, a Ford Ranger ute full of work tools, which was parked on Wall St, Nawton.
But Faiers also wanted the ute and together with a female associate picked it up and drove it to her relative’s house on nearby Breckon’s Ave.
A woman spotted the ute being moved and thinking it was Shortland’s sister, rang her, only to be told that it wasn’t her.
The woman and her husband turned around to go back to the ute but it had gone.
Faiers and her associate were by this time at the Breckon’s Ave property. The occupant, who knew Faiers, came out and noticed the ute had a smashed rear window and had likely been stolen.
Unimpressed, the pair ended up having a fight, and the ute was eventually taken away.
It was now about 5pm and Shortland had left the courthouse with his brother and they were at Breckons Ave.
On arrival, Faiers was in her Mazda with her associate in the passenger seat. The Shortland brothers pulled up alongside, and after noticing who it was, Faiers became “instantly angry”, Hamilton said.
“She took off up the road but she didn’t leave the area.
“Instead she started driving up and down Breckons Ave at some speed and as she did that [associate] leaned out the window yelling abuse at the brothers.”
Ropati Shortland got out and asked a person at a house if they had his ute.
They didn’t, they said, so Shortland started walking back to his brother’s car.
Faiers dropped her friend off who continued yelling abuse at the pair on the side of the road.
Isaiah Shortland went to approach her, but Ropati told him to “just leave it, bro”.
It was now 5.15pm, and still light.
Faiers spotted Ropati Shortland on the road so she “accelerated quickly” and drove straight at him, Hamilton said.
“She effectively lined him up and floored it.”
He only had seconds to react.
“He didn’t have many, if any, real options available to him but he tried some evasive action and jumped in the air.”
However, unlike Shortland, Hamilton said, Faiers didn’t perform any evasive manoeuvres and instead slammed her car straight into him.
He became airborne and landed on the driver’s side of the windscreen before being lobbed on to his back on the roof of the car and travelling for about 40m to 50m.
Isaiah, 43, could only watch on in horror; he was so close to his brother, he could see his face, his eyes.
Faiers didn’t slow down though, the court heard, and Isaiah started running after them.
Shortland eventually slid down the back windscreen, with his body smashing on to the road, likely head first.
His brother managed to reach him but then became concerned because by now, Faiers had turned around, and was driving back towards them, she said.
He rushed to get him off the road as Faiers carried on driving “up and down and up down, like a woman possessed”.
Shortland, who has family in Paihia, was rushed to hospital but eventually died of his injuries on May 22.
Sturm accepted his client lied about being the driver of the car when questioned by police soon afterwards, but said she was “scared”.
“Ms Faiers accepts that what she did was entirely wrong, but more than that, she accepted that what she did amounts to a crime, but not murder.
“She didn’t have any of those murderous intents as alleged by the crown.
“Instead, the defence accepts that she is guilty of the crime of manslaughter.”
He told the jury they will hear a bit about that fateful day, how it began for his client at 3am when she first had contact with Shortland, he allegedly threatening her, “effectively kidnapping her”, before he’s alleged to have gone on and assaulted his ex-partner.
Giving evidence, Isaiah Shortland told the court how his brother, who was just a couple of metres away from him, was “freaking out” as he lay on his back, arms stretched out, trying to grab on to the doors.
“But the car was going too fast,” he said.
As the car came to a bend in the road, Ropati “flipped off the roof”, head first on to the road.
As he got to him, at the same time as another member of the public, he was having a seizure, but the pair managed to lift him off the road.
Faiers drove up and down the road about three more times before she stopped and got out.
She and her associate then walked back to the house “yahooing like they were proud of themselves”.
The trial, overseen by Justice Anne Hinton, is set down for a week with a total of 20 witnesses to be called.
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