Jury out over man who beat partner to death
Murderous rage or a momentary loss of control?
A jury must now make their own minds up about what was going through a Hamilton man’s mind when he rained a series of what proved to be fatal blows on his on-again, off-again girlfriend.
Richard Mathew Coburn, 26, is standing trial in the High Court at Hamilton, charged with the murder of Paige Tutemahurangi, 25, in her home on Kahikatea Drive in Hamilton on the evening of Saturday, July 1 last year.
The jury of seven men and five women retired to consider their verdict at 2.46pm yesterday, following a summation by Justice Mary Peters.
Earlier, the jury heard the defence case for what was effectively the first time as Coburn’s counsel, Roger Laybourn, delivered his closing argument.
Laybourn urged the seven men and five women to find his client guilty only of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
“He wanted to kill her? Nothing could be further from the truth,” the barrister said. “Look at the nature of the assault. It was the use of his fists. I’m not going to minimise it but ... if there is use of a weapon, there is a stronger case to suggest this person must know it’s likely to cause death.”
Coburn had punched Tutemahurangi in the face previously – most notably at a service station in Taumarunui in 2021 – and, although he had been convicted of assault, the fact her injuries were not overly serious may have led him to underestimate the power of his blows.
It was Coburn’s behaviour after the assault – cleaning her up, attempting to revive her, and a panicked call to 111 – that was the most telling, Laybourn said. “His shock at what he’s done. His shock at her physical state. His immediate regret.”
Earlier, Crown prosecutor Rebecca Mann delivered her closing statement. “At the very least, he intended to cause her bodily injury, plainly. He struck her, and he continued to strike her, and he killed her.”
Tutemahurangi’s death was completely avoidable, Mann told the jury.
“There can be little doubt that Mr Coburn must now regret his actions. But regret after the fact and murder are not mutually exclusive. [She] died, and Mr Coburn is here because of the choices he made and the actions he took. Deliberate actions with consequences.”
Mann told the jury to be mindful of the couple’s history – not least two incidents in 2021 – which, in a police interview, Coburn summarised as “not bad violence”.
She also focused on comments made in the trial by Coburn’s older brother Robert, who said: “Paige would get into his head by saying things that could cause him to trigger ... a short fuse.”
In her summing up, Justice Peters told the jurors it might be a good idea to start the deliberation process by working out the things they knew for sure. “You know the number of blows he caused. You know what he said at his interview.”
She also warned them against dwelling too much on the couple’s history. “What’s critical in this case is what happened on this occasion.”
There were three possible outcomes, the judge said. The jury could unanimously find Coburn guilty of murder. Or they could find him not guilty of murder – in which case he would be guilty of manslaughter. The third outcome was that they would not reach a verdict at all.