‘Full panic’ over baby left in car
A jury in the High Court at Hamilton has been told about the panic that gripped a family when they realised their baby had died, allegedly as the result of being left in a hot car for hours.
Donna Catherine Parangi, 54, denies a single charge of manslaughter.
Her grandson, 8-month-old Isaiah Neil, died after being left in the car for about three hours outside her home in Ruatoki, in Eastern Bay of Plenty, on November 2, 2015.
The Crown case, led by Richard Marchant, alleges Parangi is partly responsible for his death.
Parangi is being represented by Susan Gray and Julie-Anne Kincade, and the cause of the baby’s death, heatstroke, is being disputed.
Two of the key witnesses for the Crown are Isaiah’s parents, Shane Neil and Lacey Te Whetu, who is Parangi’s daughter.
The pair, who were living with Parangi at the time, have previously pleaded guilty to their son’s manslaughter – a fact the jury have been made aware of.
Parangi and Te Whetu were addicted to synthetic cannabis and all three had allegedly been smoking it that day and were allegedly in a state of extreme drowsiness as a result.
Yesterday, on the second day of the trial, Neil testified that he had awoken mid-afternoon and went out to the car to find his son inside.
The car was ‘‘very hot’’ and, concerned for his son’s welfare, he brought him into the house.
He woke Te Whetu and she placed the baby in a cot.
Neil said he was still badly affected by the drugs and was drowsy throughout the incident.
He went back to sleep but awoke later to find his son very unwell in the cot, with a blanket covering him.
‘‘He was hot and sweaty, wet. The blanket was doubled or tripled up on him, which I thought was ridiculous, because it was a hot day. He was saturated ... lifeless.’’
He woke his partner and the two of them took the baby to a bath, sprinkling water on him in an attempt to cool him down.
Soon after that, the little boy’s body went cold.
‘‘[Te Whetu] went into a full panic state. I think we knew then that he was gone. It was the most I have seen anyone panic in my life. She was grabbing his body. Trembling, screaming, out of control.’’
Ambulance paramedics later pronounced the boy dead.
Under cross-examination from Gray, Neil admitted he was so ‘‘stoned’’ that he had trouble staying awake, even after his son had been pronounced dead. He rejected her suggestion that he slept through the whole episode.
The trial, before Justice Sally Fitzgerald, is set down for three weeks.