INVESTIGATION: Police at the scene of what has now been found to be the murder of a Kaitaia mother of two in August 2013.
INVESTIGATION: Police at the scene of what has now been found to be the murder of a Kaitaia mother of two in August 2013.
After hearing eight weeks of evidence, a jury took just 4 hours to find a Northland man guilty of murdering his partner in Kaitaia more than two years ago by running her down in his car.
The jury of six men and six women retired about 11.30am on Tuesday, andreturned at 4pm to deliver their verdict.
They had heard how 47-year-old Villiami One Fungavaka, described at the time of his arrest as a plasterer, drove his vehicle over 28-year-old mother of two Georgina Manuel twice in Pukepoto Road on August 20, 2013. She died the next morning, after being flown to Whangarei Hospital.
Villiami One Fungavaka, convicted of murder.
Evidence was given that Fungavaka, who presented himself to police in Whangarei the following day, was seen striking Ms Manuel with his Holden Commodore as she stood on the road, near the Bonnett road intersection, then performing a U-turn to run over her as she lay on the road.
Crown Prosecutor Bernadette O'Connor told the jury that Fungavaka and the victim's relationship had been volatile, and that Fungavaka intentionally ran Ms Manuel over after an argument.
She told them that medical evidence proved that both a brain injury, likely to have been caused the first time she was struck, and a liver injury, likely to have been caused the second time, had been serious enough to kill her.
"If you're sure he deliberately ran her over at least one of the two times, he's guilty," Ms O'Connor said.
Defence lawyer Greg Bradford maintained throughout the trial that what happened was an accident.
He told the jury that the first time the Fungavaka struck her it was because she stepped out in front of the car from an oblique angle. He ran over her the second time because it was dark and he did not see her lying on the road.
Fungavaka will be sentenced on November 6.
Among the reactions on social media in the days following Ms Manuel's death was this from a Far North midwife: "I and my colleagues are just so tired of it, but we can talk at work until we are blue, it makes no difference and it won't either until the grandparents, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends of these guys finally stand up and tell them it's not OK. Just one person to stop turning a blind eye and letting them think 'It's all good.' Until that happens this will just keep coming."
