Did she yell ‘stab him’ or ‘grab him’ – jury to decide

Moments before Johnny Junior Bennett was fatally stabbed in the chest, the woman he’d recently broken up with by text yelled down the driveway.

Betty-Jo Anderson-Humphrey, 23, says she called ‘‘grab him’’, but the Crown argues it was ‘‘stab him’’.

Moments later, Bennett was fatally wounded in a Hamilton driveway by Anderson-Humphrey’s niece, Selassie-I Iraia, 20 – so what Anderson-Humphrey said will be crucial.

Iraia has been convicted of manslaughter over Bennett’s December 2019 death, but if Anderson-Humphrey urged her niece on, she can also be found guilty.

A jury at the High Court at Hamilton must decide at the end of her trial, which began yesterday. The Crown says Anderson-Humphrey committed manslaughter by inciting the stabbing, but Anderson-Humphrey says she didn’t know Iraia had a knife.

She’d been with Bennett about five years and they had a child together, but the relationship ended the morning of the stabbing, December 1, 2019, the court heard.

‘‘He f ...... just broke up with me over text,’’ Anderson-Humphrey told a friend.

Meanwhile, Bennett was getting ready to move to Hawke’s Bay with new partner Tania Simiona, collecting belongings from Anderson-Humphrey’s home before heading to Lilac S, Melville, to farewell his brother.

Anderson-Humphrey decided to go too, to present a custody agreement, with two of her nieces and one of their partners.

They showed up before Bennett, who was stabbed soon after he arrived.

CCTV footage obtained by police captured images and audio of the moments around the stabbing. Bennett came up the driveway and, soon after, Anderson-Humphrey’s nieces headed to the street in search of his new partner, the Crown says.

‘‘You can see the defendant on the driveway as well, and hear her shout out to Selassie-I Iraia, ‘Get her Lass,’ ’’ Crown prosecutor Rebecca Guthrie said.

‘‘The ‘get her’,’’ the Crown said, ‘‘must have been a reference to [new partner] Tania Simiona.’’

When Bennett reaches the end of the driveway, the Crown said Anderson Humphrey is heard shouting ‘‘stab him’’.

Iraia stabs him in the chest as he runs past, using a knife she’d hidden under a piece of clothing and causing the fatal wound to his heart.

‘‘Anderson-Humphrey says ‘Did you get him?’ and Iraia replies ‘I just stabbed him,’’’ the Crown said.

A neighbour rushed Bennett to Waikato Hospital, where he had emergency surgery.

But, on December 8, he was declared brain-dead and life support was turned off. The critical point is whether Anderson-Humphrey encouraged her niece to stab Bennett, defence counsel Philip Morgan QC said.

‘‘In short, the defence is that she did not.

‘‘My client’s case is that she had no idea that Selassie-I Iraia had a knife on her as she ran down the drive.’’

What Anderson-Humphrey wanted was for Bennett to sign a document about the care of their child, Morgan said.

‘‘She didn’t want this man stabbed. She wanted him grabbed. And what happened to him was not as a result of any intentional inciting or encouragement of her niece.’’

Although Anderson-Humphrey lied to police in initial interviews, it was an attempt to protect her niece, Morgan said.