High Court trial: Woman ‘had stabbed before’

A Hamilton woman who allegedly stabbed her partner in the neck with a knife, slicing through his jugular vein, was found shortly after cradling him as he bled to death.

‘‘Sorry my honey, sorry my honey,’’ Tenesha Puhinahina Patangata, 26, of Newstead, allegedly told Peter Haimona Savage, 26, as she held him while family members gathered around after hearing a scream. ‘‘Please help me,’’ she pleaded. The dramatic scene was described to a High Court jury as Patangata began a two-week trial in Hamilton yesterday.

She faces a single charge of murder relating to the events at a house in Taupiri on New Year’s Day, 2018.

Prosecutor Louella Dunn laid out the Crown case against Patangata: She and her partner Savage had been attending a twoday combined New Year’s Eve and 40th birthday celebration at the home in rural Waring Rd.

The adults had partied in a garage attached to the house while children were entertained inside.

Most of the adults had retired to nap in the house when Patangata and Savage began arguing in the garage around 6pm, with the altercation moving outside soon after.

The dispute became physical when Patangata slapped him, Dunn said.

The Crown contends the altercation came to an abrupt end when Patangata grabbed a sharp knife from a nearby container and plunged it into the left side of his neck, slicing through muscle and vein and creating a wound seven centimetres deep.

As Dunn told the jury of seven women, others at the party found Patangata holding Savage.

The injury was an unsurvivable one and Savage died shortly afterward, in spite of the efforts of those present to save him.

The knife was found on the ground nearby, covered in Savage’s blood.

He died at the scene before police and medical staff could get there.

Patangata told police she did not know how Savage had died.

She admitted arguing with him, but not inflicting the fatal wound.

If she did inflict the injury, it would not be the first time: Patangata had incurred previous convictions for knife-related violence in 2010 and 2015, Dunn told the jury.

The 2010 incident, which resulted in a conviction on a charge of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily injury, involved her grabbing a knife at a party and stabbing a man in the back twice.

The 2015 incident involved her in a confrontation in which she had held a knife above her head and performed threatening gestures with it.

Patangata’s previous conduct was relevant because it showed that when under the influence of alcohol and involved in a confrontation, Patangata exhibited ‘‘a short fuse and an inclination to arm herself with a knife.’’

Barrister Marie Dyhrberg QC, who is acting in defence of Patangata, gave her own brief opening statement, in which she urged the jurors to be mindful her client had said it was not her that had inflicted the fatal injury.

This meant he could have stabbed himself intentionally or accidentally while he was holding the knife.

At no time did Patangata have murderous intent, and another factor the jury should consider was whether she might have acted in self-defence.

‘‘People have the right to defend themselves against the threat of violence.’’

The Crown intends to call 20 witnesses in the trial, which is being overseen by Justice Mathew Downs.

The court heard evidence from four of those witnesses, who were at the party, on Monday afternoon:

Hosts Aaron Little, and Laina Bolton – close friends of Patangata and Savage – as well as Aaron Little’s brother Stormy Little and their father, Lance Little.

Lance Little had died since the incident, and his evidence – in the form of a statement made to the police the day after the stabbing – was read to the court by Dunn.

The trial continues.