"I thought they were having a domestic dispute," Marshall said.
She was so concerned that she peeked through a hole in the fence.
She says she saw the man working on a washing machine.
"He was quite agitated."
She says she saw the man go inside the house and bring the baby outside, carrying him like a carry bag or clothes bag. The child was still grizzling when he placed him on a mat on the grass, she told the court.
Marshall says the man said to the child that he needed to fix the washing machine "or Mum would be angry".
A friend was visiting Marshall at the time and she also had a look through the fence.
Marshall says she loudly said that perhaps the child needed a drink and to go to sleep because he was tired, hoping the man would hear her.
After Ihaka's death, police visited her and she told them what she had heard and seen.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Phil Shamy, she accepted that she never saw the man say shut up to the baby, but that she assumed he was telling the child to shut up.
The Crown and the defence agree there were no intruders on that fateful night and that the boy's 59 horrific injuries, including broken bones, were not accidental.
The Crown says that Taylor was suffering from sleep deprivation, headaches, and irritability caused by multiple concussions around the time Ihaka was developing an ear infection, when he allegedly caused the fatal injuries.
Stokes, who was 36 weeks' pregnant at the time of Ihaka's death with her second child, repeatedly denied the accusations when she gave evidence earlier this week.
Taylor also denies assaulting the child on July 2, 2015, the day before the boy's death.
The trial, before Justice Cameron Mander, continues.
Taylor is expected to testify later today.
