The awful killing of Mark Beale
How did a peaceful, eccentric man suffer such a violent, inhumane death? Marty Sharpe reports.
Mark Beale was a peaceful, eccentric man who died a violent, inhumane death. The 45-year-old loved his two sons, loved fishing, and loved a drink.
He lived alone in a little house at Haumoana, near the mouth of Hawke’s Bay’s Tukituki River. He preferred his own company, but would often socialise with others who came to catch fish in the wide, calm lower river.
On long, hot days he would put out a net and wander the banks, usually with a plastic drinking bottle filled with his home-brewed vodka. A potent drop, he made it by draining methylated spirits through a charcoal filter.
On the evening of February 5, Beale happened to meet Tuhungia Puna, who he had chatted with on a few previous occasions. They shared a love of fishing. ‘‘Tu’’ was with his nephews Johnnie Puna, 19, and Leroy Christie, 18.
The trio had brought boxes of bourbon and cola and had set up camp on the riverbank. Tuhungia set a net and did most of the work while the teens sat around, drank, and listened to loud music on a large speaker they had brought along.
Before the night was over, the trio would have packed their things and returned home and Beale would be left cold, wet, and dying alone on the riverbank.
How and why this occurred were the subject of a four-day murder trial in the High Court at Napier this week.
It ended with a jury finding Johnnie Puna had murdered Beale.
It was accepted from the outset that Puna had killed Beale with a series of punches and kicks to his head over a period of 40 to 60 minutes.
The question the jury had to answer was; ‘‘Did Puna know that the injuries he inflicted were likely to have caused Beale’s death?’’.
The Crown said the assault was so violent and sustained, and the injuries so bad, that he had to have known that Beale may have died. The defence said Puna was young and very drunk and had no intention of killing Beale, and certainly had no idea that the injuries were bad enough to be fatal.
Christie told police Puna and Beale had returned to Beale’s house at some stage of the night to get more vodka. He had seen them walking back along a limestone track, and had seen them fall. He believed Beale had stumbled and tripped and in attempting to correct himself he had reached out and grabbed Puna, accidentally dragging him to the ground.
Puna’s face hit the ground and he grazed his chin. It was the Crown’s case that this infuriated Puna, and that once the pair got back to the fishing spot it was the ‘‘catalyst’’ for his assault on Beale.
In a recording of a police interview shown to the jury Christie said Puna began punching and kicking Beale to the head. He would knock him unconscious, wait for him to come to, then knock him unconscious again. ‘‘Something just went over him and just possessed him to keep on going. It was f...ed up,’’ Christie said.
He said he asked Puna to stop, but he wouldn’t.
‘‘If I wasn’t there I don’t think he would have stopped. I think he would have kept on going. I think he would have killed him,’’ Christie said.
The court heard that the assault occurred over 40 minutes to an hour. It also heard that Puna had urinated over Beale as he lay there dying.
At one point some members of another group who were in the area walked past the men. They chatted with Puna and Christie. When they saw the unconscious Beale lying on the ground and asked what was wrong with him, Puna said he had drunk too much and was sleeping.
When Tuhungia got back to his nephews from the river he found Beale unconscious and Puna told him he had hit him. Tuhungia told his nephews to put Beale on his side so he didn’t ‘‘choke on his tongue’’. Then the trio packed quickly and drove home.
Beale was found unconscious and rushed to Hawke’s Bay Hospital early on the morning of Waitangi Day.
He had extensive bruising to his face, eyes, and jaw, as well as bruising down his left flank and left arm.
It was soon apparent that the damage to his brain was such that he would not survive.
Once Beale’s identity was established, his family was contacted, and in the early hours of February 7 they made the painful decision to turn off the ventilator that was keeping him alive.
Beale’s son Jareb told the court his dad had battled alcoholism throughout his life.
Asked by Crown prosecutor Steve Manning to describe his father’s relationship with alcohol, Jareb replied ‘‘intimate’’.
It was a fleeting moment of
Beale was found unconscious and rushed to Hawke’s Bay Hospital early on the morning ofWaitangi Day. He had extensive bruising to his face, eyes, and jaw, as well as bruising down his left flank and left arm. It was soon apparent that the damage to his brain was such that he would not survive.
levity, and drew a chuckle from some of the jury members and counsel.
‘‘He was, very, what’s the word, placid, relaxed, he wasn’t, he’s definitely a happy drunk. He wouldn’t, he wouldn’t get angry or anything like that. He’d just put himself to sleep essentially,’’ Jareb recalled.
In the days and weeks following Beale’s death police appealed for witnesses.
Puna, Christie and Tu did not come forward.
Police were led to Puna through DNA and fingerprints found on a can of Cody’s bourbon and cola left at the scene.
Puna was interviewed on February 24.
In a video of a police interview played to the court Puna said he had been drunk on the night and did not recall much.
He admitted hitting Beale but said ‘‘I didn’t mean to kill anyone’’.
‘‘I just took it a bit too far,’’ he said.
He was charged with murder. The court heard from Puna’s aunt, Tuhungia’s wife Gemma Gibbs, who had spoken to Puna in the days after Beale’s death.
Gibbs said Puna told her he had given Beale ‘‘a hiding’’ and had kicked him in the head 13 times.
She recalled him laughing and said ‘‘he [Puna] was a bit bummed out’’.
‘‘He tried to see the funny side of it, I guess,’’ Gibbs said.
She also told the court that Puna had said he had ‘‘p....d on him’’ as he lay on the ground.
Asked why she had not gone to police, Gibbs said she felt it was up to Puna to hand himself in.
After his arrest police had Puna’s shoe’s forensically tested. Spatters of Beale’s blood were found.
It was this pair of shoes that Manning asked the jury to wear, metaphorically.
‘‘You’re being asked to walk in those shoes and ask yourself, what was his intention, what was his knowledge, as those shoes connected with the head of Mr Beale, not once, not twice, but many, many times. What was he thinking as he drove, forcefully, his foot into the face and head, repeatedly, of a defenceless man lying on the ground?’’ Manning asked the jury.
At 10.45am yesterday, the jury gave him their answer.
It returned a verdict of guilty. Johnnie Puna will be sentenced on February 8.