Hawke’s Bay murder trial: Court views video footage of unconscious victim

Taylor-Jade Hira died in Wellington Hospital in 2019.

Video footage of an unconscious and fatally injured woman being carried out of a suburban Hastings property has been played to the jury in a murder trial.

Another video clip showed murder accused Ranapera Taumata later lifting Taylor-Jade Hira out of a car and in through the doors of the Emergency Department of Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

A third video showed Taumata placing an unconscious Hira on a bed or trolley in the Emergency Department, where she was attended to by a male nurse.

The pieces of video, and others, were shown in the High Court at Napier on Thursday.

They covered events in the early hours of August 15, 2019, when the Crown says Hira suffered an “unsurvivable” brain injury at Taumata’s hands.

They were captured by four video cameras on the outside of the house where Taumata lived in Camberley, Hastings, and security cameras at the hospital.

The court has been told clinical staff at the hospital in Hastings gave Hira a CT scan and found a big pocket of blood in the brain. They had her flown to Wellington Hospital for treatment, where she died when her life support system was turned off three days later.

Taylor-Jade Hira was taken to the Emergency Department at Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings. Photo / NZME

Taumata has been charged with injuring Hira with intent to injure her, and with her murder. He has pleaded not guilty on both counts.

On the third day of the trial, Napier Crown solicitor Steve Manning took Taumata’s sister, Alana Taumata, and other witnesses through the series of video clips.

The cameras at the home caught Ranapera Taumata and Hira entering a sleepout behind the house in the suburb of Camberley, and then the movements of people around the property after Taumata later went to the house to tell his sister something was wrong.

Alana Taumata also gave the court her account of going into the sleepout to find Hira lying unconscious on a bed, dressed in shorts and a sports bra.

The injured woman was on her back with her eyes open but not fully, and her eyeballs rolling back. She was gritting her teeth and occasionally giving “a kind of little grunting noise”.

She used her hand to feel Hira’s feet, cheek and head, and she appeared cold.

“Her state was not very good,” Alana Taumata said.

She said she asked her brother, “What the f*** happened?” He replied that he did not know.

She said her brother was panicking and she was “freaking out”.

Alana Taumata said she ran to get her mother, who was sleeping in the house. A blanket and a bucket of water were fetched. She said the purpose of the water was to dab Taylor-Jade’s face.

Ranapera Taumata said to Hira, “If you can hear me, please squeeze my hand. I’m sorry,” Alana Taumata told the court.

Manning asked if an ambulance was called.

Alana Taumata said: “I think we just jumped in the car and took her to the hospital. Thought it was faster.”

As Manning took Alana Taumata through various video clips, he stopped one in which she could be seen looking down at the ground inside the front gate.

He asked what she was looking at, and Alana said it was blood on the ground.

Manning asked her to describe the blood. She replied: “There was enough to notice it. Red. Kind of like a puddle but not a puddle.”

Manning is accompanied by counsel Michael Blaschke for the Crown. Lawyers Andrew Schulze and Harry Redwood are appearing for the defence.

The trial, before Justice Christine Grice and a jury of eight women and four men, is continuing.