Mum tells of panic at death
Manslaughter trial hears evidence from baby’s mother
Ayoung mother has spoken of her panic in trying to revive her baby son left in a car to sleep while she smoked synthetic cannabis. Lacey Te Whetu, 29, was giving evidence in the High Court trial of her mother, Donna Parangi, who denied the manslaughter of her grandson.
Isaiah Neil was 8 months old when he died at his grandparents’ home in Ruatoki on November 2, 2015.
The infant died from heatstroke after being left in a hot car for several hours, claims the Crown, which says Parangi is responsible for his death.
Parangi’s lawyer, Susan Gray, told the jury there was “considerable doubt” that heatstroke, also known as hyperthermia, caused the death.
Te Whetu and Shane Neil have previously pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of their son.
This week the former couple gave evidence in the trial of Parangi.
In giving sometimes tearful evidence, Te Whetu told the jury her mother — who worked fulltime, sometimes six days a week — helped her care for Isaiah and her older children.
“I wasn’t capable,” said Te Whetu, because of her drug addiction. She was spending hundreds of dollars on black-market synthetic cannabis. “From the moment I woke up, to the moment I went to sleep at night . . . as much as I could get my hands on.”
She said her mother would smoke synthetics at home after work.
Most often, Te Whetu and Parangi purchased the drugs together from a cousin in Kawerau.
On that morning they drove to see a different dealer — one of Parangi’s work colleagues. They took Isaiah with them, strapped into his baby seat in the back of the car. Te Whetu’s two older children were at kohanga reo.
A $40 bag of synthetics would last one day in the house, said Te Whetu. They used a homemade bong.
After buying the drugs Te Whetu and Parangi returned to Ruatoki, near Whakatane, with Isaiah. He fell asleep in the car on the way home.
Te Whetu said they parked the car by the home’s back step about noon.
She encouraged Parangi to let him sleep there. “We were eager to go and get stoned,” said Te Whetu. “I assumed someone else would get him [out of the car].”
Later she woke and asked Neil to get Isaiah out of the car. Neil returned with their son and handed him to Te Whetu, saying “he’s hot”.
Te Whetu said he did feel hot, but she thought he was in a deep sleep.
The next thing she remembered was waking, noticing it was darker and realising Isaiah hadn’t made any noise. Te Whetu went into his room and “panicked”. “I was freaking out, he wasn’t moving.”
She ran next door to call 111. On instructions from the 111 operator, Te Whetu tried to resuscitate Isaiah but he didn’t respond.
About 20 or 30 minutes later, an ambulance arrived. Soon after, Isaiah was pronounced dead.
Later, Te Whetu learned of other bruises on Isaiah, as well as an adult bite mark on his elbow. She didn’t know how the injuries were inflicted.
Te Whetu will continue to give evidence today.
Earlier Neil said he found Isaiah strapped in his car seat, unresponsive.
“[He was] sweaty, wet, hot,” said Neil. “Limp, he felt limp.” Neil has finished giving evidence.
Under cross-examination by Gray, Neil conceded he had memory lapses about what happened that day.
The trial before Justice Sally Fitzgerald in the High Court at Hamilton is expected to last up to three weeks.