Police at the scene of the fatal assault on December 20 on Jellicoe St, Hastings which led to the death of Javon Aranui (inset). Photo / Paul Taylor
Police at the scene of the fatal assault on December 20 on Jellicoe St, Hastings which led to the death of Javon Aranui (inset). Photo / Paul Taylor
Isaiah Buchanan and Ahere Gillies are on trial charged with murdering Javon Aranui in December 2023.
The Crown says Aranui was subjected to multiple kicks, stomps, and punches in a Hastings street early one morning.
Both accused have pleaded not guilty.
Two police officers have recounted talking with an unsteady and stumbling Javon Aranui, soon after he received fatal injuries in an early-morning assault in Hastings.
The officers had been called to the suburb of Mayfair after a 111 caller said he had seen a man getting a “bloody beating”in the street near his house.
They found Aranui, 24, near Jellicoe St and talked to him before calling an ambulance.
The Crown says that Aranui was subjected to multiple kicks, stomps and punches to his head and body while being assaulted by two men in Jellicoe St, Hastings, about 3am on December 20, 2023.
Constable Daniel Scott told the court on Tuesday that when he drove into Jellicoe St in response to the 111 call, he saw a man standing next to a bicycle that was lying on the ground.
Isiah Buchanan, left, and Ahere Gillies appear in the High Court at Napier charged with the murder of Javon Aranui. Photo / Ric Stevens
After checking in neighbouring Hood St, Scott drove back into Jellicoe St to find the person was now riding the bicycle near the intersection with Collinge Rd.
The man was Javon Aranui. He fell off the bicycle in Collinge Rd and Scott said the officers pulled up alongside him.
“He was upright and, basically, has just fallen sideways ... just fallen to one side,” Scott said.
Scott and his fellow officer, Constable Nicholas Blair, asked Aranui if he was all right.
They looked at him in torchlight and found that he had injuries to his face and a split lip.
Aranui told them he was intoxicated. The Crown told the trial earlier that test results later showed that he had no alcohol or drugs in his system.
Aranui also told the officers that he had been beaten up some distance away, towards Havelock North.
Scott recalled him saying something along the lines of: “I’ve been biking home from Havelock North and some guys jumped me”.
Acting on a “hunch”, Scott walked around the corner into Jellicoe St and noticed droplets of blood on the pavement, which he photographed.
“It [the blood] appeared to be fresh. It was still wet,” Scott said.
Scott said that he spent a while observing the house outside of which he found the blood, but did not hear or see anyone.
When he returned to Collinge Rd, an ambulance had arrived.
Scott said that Aranui was coherent and alert while he was dealing with him. He had been able to get out of the ambulance to urinate on the side of the road.
“He was quite unsteady on his feet, though,” he said.
After urinating, Aranui “stumbled” back into the ambulance.
Blair told the court that Aranui had vomited “quite a lot” while in the ambulance.
“He wouldn’t go into too much detail about the assault ... he just wanted to go on his merry way,” Blair said.
The court was told earlier that the ambulance took Aranui to the Emergency Department at Hastings Hospital, from where he was transferred to Wellington.
The officers said that Aranui had been worried about what would happen to his bicycle if he was taken away by the ambulance.
The police officers said they would take it to an address he supplied them.
They removed the front wheel and put the bike in the back of the patrol car before leaving the scene.
The trial before Justice Peter Churchman and a jury of eight women and four men is continuing.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.
