Murder accused: ‘I did it’, trial told
A woman who allegedly stabbed her partner in the neck, fatally wounding him, made an admission to the dead man’s mother at his tangi that ‘‘I did it’’, a High Court jury has been told.
Teneshiah Puhinahina Patangata, 26, of Newstead, is on trial 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 butcher’s knife and stabbed him in the neck, inflicting a 7 centimetre deep wound that proved fatal.
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 third day yesterday, the jury heard evidence from Helen Sisley, Savage’s whangai (adoptive) mother, who recounted a conversation she said she had with Patangata as they sat vigil beside the dead man’s casket at his tangi in Te Teko, in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Sisley said Patangata had approached her and she asked the younger woman what had happened to her son.
Patangata’s response, she told the jury, was ‘‘I did it ... we were pushing each other’’.
‘‘I looked at her and thought ‘Am I hearing this?’’’ Sisley said.
At that point Patangata made eye contact with her friends, gave a nervous smile and the conversation ended, Sisley said.
Defence counsel Marie Dyhrberg QC challenged Sisley on her recollection of that conversation.
‘‘Did [Patangata] say to you ‘I don’t know, I’m sorry’?’’ Dyhrberg asked. ‘‘No she did not,’’ Sisley replied. Sisley had told the court her son had been working for the office of the Maori King as a liaison for overseas visitors and at private dinner parties at the time he was killed.
At the time of her alleged conversation with Patangata at the tangi, Sisley was in the company of two of Savage’s nieces, sisters Nellie and Tania Searancke, who also gave evidence in court.
Each had a different version of how Patangata gave her alleged admission of guilt.
‘‘I heard her say ‘It was me’,’’ Nellie Searancke said.
Afterward, she heard Sisley ask Patangata: ‘‘Did you give him the dong?’’, to which Patangata gave a reply that she did not hear clearly.
Tania Searancke’s version of that conversation also differed from Sisley’s.
‘‘Aunty Helen was really distraught and asked her if she had done it, and I heard ‘Yes, yes, I’m sorry’.’’
Tensions were high between Patangata and Savage’s family at the tangi and on the third and final day a hui was held and Patangata was asked to leave.
Earlier in the day, the jury heard evidence from forensic pathologist Kilak Kesha, who conducted the post mortem examination on Savage’s body.
He spoke about the wound, a sevencentimetre deep incursion that sliced through the jugular vein, the carotid artery and into the fifth vertebrae in Savage’s neck.
It was a lethal injury, he said. ‘‘Without immediate medical attention a person would die within minutes.’’
There had been a suggestion the wound could have been inflicted by a broken broom handle, which was found nearby with blood stains on it after the fatal incident.
‘‘The only thing that could have made this injury was a knife,’’ Kesha told the court.
The alleged murder weapon had already been presented as an exhibit in court.
‘‘The instrument in front of me would have been consistent with the wound that I saw,’’ Kesha said.
While he could not exclude the wound being self-inflicted, it was less likely.
‘‘It would be difficult ... The length of the blade would require the hand to be quite far from the neck.’’
Most self-inflicted wounds made by people attempting suicide with a knife tended to be in the form of slicing through tendons of the arms, or slashing their necks in a sideways motion.
He did know of any suicide cases where the victim had stabbed themselves in the neck in the manner of a single puncture wound.
The trial, before Justice Mathew Downs, continues.