‘He’s dead and it’s all my fault’

A woman who allegedly plunged a knife into the neck of her partner, fatally wounding the man, was overheard by a police officer soon after telling her friend: ‘‘He’s dead and it’s all my fault.’’

Teneshiah Puhinahina Patangata, 26, of Newstead, is on trial in the High Court in Hamilton, charged with murdering her partner Peter Haimona Savage,

26, on New Year’s Day 2018. The Crown case against her contends that the couple were attending the second day of a two-day combined New Year’s Eve and

40th birthday celebration at a home in rural Taupiri when the couple began arguing and she grabbed a filleting knife and stabbed him in the neck, inflicting a seven centimetre deep wound. The knife had severed Savage’s jugular vein and, as Patangata cradled him in her lap, he quickly bled to death. There were no witnesses to the fatal wound being inflicted.

On the trial’s second day yesterday, the jury heard evidence from Sgt Gareth Barnes, who at the time of the incident was an acting sergeant based in Huntly and was one of the first police on the scene after Savage suffered his fatal wound.

After identifying Patangata as a potential suspect, Barnes said he needed to remove her from the scene. This took some time, as she was hysterical. He enlisted the help of Patangata’s friend Laina Bolton to escort her back to the patrol car. As they did so, Barnes said he heard Patangata tell Bolton words to the effect of: ‘‘He’s dead and it’s all my fault.’’ He asked the two women not to speak to each other about what had happened. Barnes and Constable Cameron McKeown had arrived at the house armed with guns, but these were quickly put away once the dire nature of Savage’s situation was apparent. Savage’s friend Aaron Little was attempting to perform CPR on him, while Patangata knelt by his head. ‘‘He fell. Take a look,’’ she said, and lifted a towel covering the wound on her partner’s neck.

Barnes said it was clear Savage had either just died or was on the verge of death. He said he recalled Patangata saying words to the effect of ‘‘We were fighting each other over by the barbecue. We were strangling each other. We fell. He was bleeding, so we stopped fighting.’’