MAN’S DEATH LINKED TO SEX-WORKER DEBT
Accused admit fatal attack after victim lured to woman’s home
Three men have pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and aggravated robbery relating to the bashing of a man in a sex-debt recovery mission in Hastings last year.
According to an agreed summary of facts, victim and Philippines national Jermaine Arias Ramos, 33, was lured to a property in Ferguson St, Akina, on April 1, 2019, robbed of $640 and bashed by at least one of the men, including being struck on the head with a glass vase.
Ramos, who had been living in Waipukurau, died at the scene. Medical experts later determined the injuries were among multiple factors in the death, including Ramos’ use of methamphetamine and a heart condition.
The admissions came in the High Court in Napier yesterday, avoiding a trial which was to have been held next year, with the men earlier this year pleading not guilty to murder.
Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker said it was accepted the murder charge should be amended to manslaughter.
In court were Steven Matthew Kingi, said by the Crown to have been a 40-year-old patched Black Power member at the time of the attack, gang associate Stewart Hubbard and prospect Jessee James Burns, both 27.
The men were arrested only in May this year, but a 36-year-old woman who had claimed the debt was arrested at the time and has been sentenced on the robbery charge, with police and the Crown accepting she told the men she wanted no violence and had no part in it.
The summary said the woman contacted Kingi the day before the death and told him Ramos had left a Havelock North motel and failed to pay the full agreed price for sexual services during the night, in which she also provided him methamphetamine. She contacted Kingi again on April 1 and accepted his suggestion that she invite the man to her address, which she did by offering him more methamphetamine and possibly more sexual services.
Kingi enlisted Burns, who contacted Hubbard, and the trio met the woman at her home and discussed her getting Ramos into the house and how they would get the money owed.
The woman later told police she told the men she did not want violence and did not expect there to be anything more than a punch to the Filipino man’s face.
The trio waited in a parked car until Ramos arrived with $640 just obtained from a cash machine.
The woman invited him in, turned on a kettle and went into a bedroom to check on her young child.
The trio entered the house and demanded money from the victim, who was then assaulted, including being bashed in the head with a glass vase.
There were multiple injuries. The men left, and the woman returned to her lounge and found Ramos lying on the floor, bleeding from the head.
She later told police she believed he had still been alive but in panic she did not contact emergency services, instead calling a friend and asking him to make the call. An ambulance arrived, but Ramos had died.
The Crown said the respective parts in the assault were not known and while Kingi was more “culpable” in the robbery, all three were “equally culpable” for the manslaughter.
Kingi was represented by barrister Matthew Phelps, Hubbard by Eric Forster, and Burns by Leo Lafferty.
Counsel indicated cultural reports would be sought in relation to each defendant, and indicated their clients would be available to take part in restorative justice processes if possible, but Clayton said it remained to be seen if it were appropriate.
Justice Christine Grice, sitting via audio visual link from Wellington, remanded the men in custody for sentencing at the High Court in Napier on February 11.