Resident: I didn’t know he was dead

The sound of a man allegedly being beaten to death in his bedroom could be heard by people living upstairs, a High Court jury has been told.

Lance Tangiriki Bush, 48, and his son Lance Ati Jackson Bush, 28, are on trial in Hamilton, where they are each facing a charge of murder and another of aggravated robbery relating to the death of Hamilton man Brent Paul Brown.

Brown, 45, was found dead in a boarding house in Poaka Avenue, Dinsdale, on August 31, 2016.

Police later said he died of multiple injuries after allegedly being attacked with a blunt instrument.

The house he lived in was literally a house divided. Brown and his sister and her partner, who lived in rooms downstairs, had an acrimonious relationship with two couples who lived upstairs. A door with a lock had been installed to stop the people downstairs from accessing the upstairs kitchen.

Yesterday, the court heard evidence from Patricia Walters, one of the upstairs residents who had begun giving evidence on Thursday afternoon.

She had told Crown prosecutor Jacinda Foster she could hear a ‘‘crashing, booming’’ sound downstairs, over the sound of loud music that Brown’s sister and her partner were playing in their bedroom.

Walters was asked if she knew if there was someone downstairs who was hurt or dead.

‘‘No, not until the police officer told me,’’ she said.

However, under crossexamination from Lance Bush Jnr’s counsel Thomas Sutcliffe, Walters admitted she, her partner and two of the other upstairs residents knew that there was an injured man in the downstairs bedroom prior to the arrival of the police.

‘‘I knew he was hurt. I did not know he was dead,’’ she said.

She and the others had discussed how they would deal with the police when they arrived.

‘‘I would not call it a plan,’’ she said.

However, she had played dumb and had not told the police she knew that there was a man downstairs injured.

‘‘I just wanted to stay out of it.’’

Walters, who is blind in one eye, said she and other upstairs residents had smoked ‘‘crack’’ earlier in the day.

Bush Snr had also came to the house earlier in the afternoon and had told another resident in the house he intended to tow away Brown’s Ford Falcon, which was parked outside, she said.

Walters had earlier told Foster she had seen Bush Snr wearing white gloves at that time.

‘‘When you heard banging later in the evening, all of you upstairs knew about what was going on,’’ Sutcliffe said to her. ‘‘When the noise started, that was Lance getting ready to take the car from that man.’’

‘‘I thought it was part of the party,’’ she said.

She also saw a white ute parked in the driveway later that evening. She said at one point she had seen Bush Snr walk across the road and speak to another person, who another upstairs resident told her was Bush Jnr.

Under cross-examination from Bush Snr’s counsel Philip Morgan QC, Walters said she saw three men wearing dark clothing out by the roadside. She said she recognised one of the men as Bush Snr by the clothing he was wearing.

By the time Foster re-examined Walters, following her questioning by Sutcliffe and Morgan QC, the woman giving evidence had expanded her initial story.

‘‘You knew someone had been hurt, but you did not know he was dead?’’ Foster said to her.

‘‘[The husband of the other upstairs couple] told me ... they had rammed a gun, smashed the handle bit into his head. He said Lance [Snr] and them [had done it].’’