No reaction by convicted murderer

James Allan Hemana. Photo / supplied

Baby Cezar died in his loving father's arms after being violently shaken and dropped on his head by his mother's boyfriend.

The boyfriend, James Hemana, showed little reaction today as an Auckland High Court jury found him guilty of murdering Cezar. Hemana had earlier pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessities of life.

Outside court, Cezar's father Adam Clarke held a photo of his baby son and said "cherish your kids".

"It's awesome. I've been waiting a long time for this, it is just some closure. All the bad dreams are over now, hopefully."

He said he hoped Hemana got a sentence that reflected the amount of years he had taken from Cezar's life.

Asked what he thought of Hemana, Mr Clarke said he would not be sending him any Christmas cards.

"I don't want to say too much ... it just fits into a four-letter word, what I think of him."

During the trial, the court heard how Victoria Taylor, at the age of 20, had three children, baby Cezar being her youngest. She broke up with Mr Clarke before meeting Hemana and renting a home in Mangere.

Mr Clarke looked after the baby until Cezar was five months old.

Ms Taylor had been looking after her one-year-old daughter Wikitoria but in June she and Mr Clarke swapped children and Cezar moved into the Mangere home.

Ms Taylor said everything was fine for the first week but Hemana began getting violent. She said Hemana would hit her in the arms and legs and on the body. He would also get angry when baby Cezar cried for his bottle.

"He would tell him: 'Shut the f*** up', take him into the lounge, put him in his walkie and stand there and smack his head into the walkie because he was crying."

Ms Taylor said she tried to intervene.

"I said: 'What are you hitting my son for? He's only crying because he's hungry'. [He replied:] 'I don't give a f***, he woke me up'."

The Crown said Hemana violently shook Cezar on two occasions in July last year but it was the second occasion which led to the baby's fatal injuries.

Ms Taylor said Hemana picked up the child by one leg.

"He lifted him up, shook him, dropped him, picked him up, shake, shake, shake and dropped him."

On the third occasion, the baby's head collided with a cabinet before hitting the bed.

She said Cezar had been an alert, talkative baby but his condition changed after the attacks.

"Come Tuesday, he wasn't moving much, just sitting around ... As the week went on, he couldn't look and couldn't see. He looked like a zombie."

Ms Taylor said Hemana stopped her from taking baby Cezar to the hospital and she had to stay home and "watch my baby look dead for a week".

Her brother, Russell, said Hemana referred to the baby as "Zombie Boy" in the last days of his life.

He said he also heard Hemana call baby Cezar "lazy, that he was always tired and flickered his eyes ... things like that."

In his closing on Monday, Crown prosecutor Phil Hamlin told the jury: "The way we handle a six-month-old can be explained in one word: carefully'."

He said Hemana did the opposite and the medical evidence confirmed that.

Mr Hamlin said Hemana prevented Ms Taylor from taking Cezar to hospital but when he finally relented, he threatened her with the words: "You mention my name and you'll be buried alive."

He ended with a plea to the jury. "Remember some of the points I've raised for Cezar because he doesn't have a voice."

Hemana's lawyer Steve Bonnar said the defence case could be summed up in a text message Hemana sent to Cezar's mother after it was suggested he had punched the child in the head: "I might be rough, but I'm not f****** evil like that," it said.

"If he didn't even think about it, if he didn't even turn his mind to it, that's not murderous intent, that's manslaughter."

Hemana will be sentenced in March next year.