Assault accused found not guilty

A man accused of bashing in the back of another man’s head with a hammer has been cleared.

Tamati Takarua, 24, was charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm over the March 2016 assault.

Lawrence Carroll, 24, had the back of his head caved in with a hammer in a drug deal gone wrong.

Carroll said he was planning to do a drug deal when he climbed into the front seat of a car with a group of men, but ended up being assaulted.

Takarua was found not guilty of the assault after a three-day trial in the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday. The jury broke to deliberate on the charges about 4pm on Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Karl van der Plas told the jury during his closing address the evidence clearly pointed to Takarua being involved.

Two witnesses said they saw Takarua involved in the assault, one saying they spotted him using a baseball bat during the attack. They also described a distinctive T-shirt Takarua was wearing, later found to have Carroll’s blood on it, he said.

Carroll’s blood was also found on the bottom of Takarua’s gumboot, and on a baseball bat and hammer found in the car Takarua travelled in that night.

Takarua’s version of events was that he saw the car leaving a party, and he ran after it because it was his only ride home. He went around a corner and found it and a bloodied Carroll, he said.

Defence lawyer Tony Thackery said the blood had been smeared onto the back of Takarua’s T-shirt, consistent with him jumping in the car after Carroll had been attacked. There would have been more blood on Takarua if he had bashed Carroll, Thackery said.