A jury was expected to retire early this afternoon to consider its verdicts in the trial of nightclub doorman Jonothan Te Kahu who was charged with murdering a man at a bar entrance in Napier 13 months ago.
The trial of the 25-year-old, who punched and kicked 30-year-old James Gregory Sciascia just before the Flaxmere man died about 2.30am on April 17 last year, started on Monday and had been scheduled to last five days.
But crown prosecutor Jonathan Krebs ended the case against Te Kahu after evidence from two pathologists yesterday morning, and the accused's lawyer, Steve Manning, announced no witnesses would be called for the defence.
Justice Forrest Miller adjourned the trial in the High Court in Napier for closing addresses and his summing-up today to the jury of seven women and five men.
Te Kahu has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and also an alternative of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Sciascia by kicking him in the head. But the Crown withdrew the second charge this morning.
The charges resulted from a skirmish after Te Kahu refused the intoxicated Mr Sciascia entry to the Envy lounge in the busy northern Hastings Street bar quarter.
Witnesses have told the court Mr Sciascia struck out at the doorman and the two traded punches before the swaying nightclub patron fell and was kicked in the head as he tried to get up. The upper side of Te Kahu's foot struck Mr Sciascia in the face, and the man had died by the time an ambulance arrived from Hastings.
On Tuesday, police confirmed no blood was found on the footpath or road at the scene, and yesterday pathologist Jill Cobb, who did an autopsy and who travelled from the United States to give evidence, said there was almost no sign of external injury, apart from abrasions around the sides of the deceased's nose.
The fatal injury was the sheering of the septum pellucidem, between the two hemispheres of the brain and part of the central brain structure. It would have resulted from the movement of the head, or more particularly the brain within the skull, she said.
Neither she nor Martin Sage, of Christchurch, who was called to give a second opinion, could be certain whether it was a punch or a kick which caused the injury, or whether it had been a combination of the blows.
Asked if a person with a high level of intoxication might be more vulnerable to such an injury than if the same level of force was inflicted on someone who was not intoxicated, Dr Sage said: "I believe so."
Dr Sage said that the injury received by Mr Sciascia was rare in isolation, and was more commonly seen in conjunction with other injuries to "adjacent structures".
(Proceeding)
Wait begins for bouncer accused of murder
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