Jellicoe Park murder trial: Lawyers argue over what caused Nigel Fuatimu's death

Nigel Fuatimu, 21, died at Jellicoe Park in Manurewa on Oct 3, 2020. Photo / Supplied

It was a "perfect storm" of pre-existing health issues - not repeated blows to his head and neck - that caused the death of a 21-year-old during an altercation with strangers in Manurewa's Jellicoe Park, defence lawyers argued today as they summed up four weeks of evidence in the murder trial of Isaac Ramese-Stanley and Simon Tavita.

"Unfortunately, Mr [Nigel] Fuatimu had a number of underlying issues," Panama Le'au'anae, who represents Tavita, told jurors in the High Court at Auckland. "We know that he was morbidly obese. We know that he had heart issues."

Prosecutors, however, said it wasn't nearly as nuanced as the defence wanted to make it. Fuatimu, they said, was "jumped" by drunken strangers and simply beaten to death.

Fuatimu had been playing loud music and singing with three friends in the park around 11pm on Oct 3, 2020, when the confrontation occurred. Fuatimu and his friends were "minding their own business" when the defendants emerged from the dark and attacked without warning, Crown prosecutor Dale Dufty said during his own closing address.

'Act of pure hatred'

"It was sudden. They were jumped - plain and simple," Dufty said. "All four men ran for their lives.

"Nigel Fuatimu wasn't so lucky. He was knocked unconscious, beaten and killed."

He described Fuatimu as a humble, conscientious family man whose post-mortem toxicology showed he had the equivalent of a couple of beers that night. It was a stark contrast to some of the others in the park - the strangers and his own friends alike - who admitted to heavy drinking prior to the confrontation.

"It's unlikely he started any fight in Jellicoe Park because it's just not in his nature," Dufty said.

Fuatimu suffered 10 separate injuries to his head and another seven injuries to his neck.

Tavita was the first to attack Fuatimu, but as the two wrestled on the ground Fuatimu got the upper hand and was on top of his attacker, Dufty said. That's when co-defendant Ramese-Stanley ran over and kicked Fuatimu in the head, rendering him unconscious, the prosecutor alleged.

While Fuatimu was still unconscious, Tavita found a 7kg concrete block and dropped it on his head and neck area, Dufty said.

"Why did he do this? We don't know," the prosecutor told jurors, describing it as an "act of pure hatred". "What we do know is for a brief moment in time, Nigel got the better of them. Mr Tavita didn't like that."

The two then kicked Fuatimu in the head and neck repeatedly, Dufty argued.

Four medical experts testified during the trial - some for the Crown and others for the defence - and all seemed to agree that blunt force injuries would have at least been a contributing factor to the death, Dufty argued.

The attack doesn't have to be the main cause of Fuatimu's death, but if it was a contributing cause in a "not unsubstantial way" the two are guilty, he said, explaining that Fuatimu could still have been murdered even if he did possibly already suffer from coronary-artery disease or an irregular heartbeat.

All three of Fuatimu's friends who were in the park that night testified during the trial, as did Andy Tofaeono, who was with the defendants that night and has previously pleaded guilty to his part in the melee.

'Not a homicidal blow'

But none of the witnesses, including Tofaeone, should be trusted, defence lawyers argued today.

"They don't want to go to Mr Fuatimu's parents and say, 'OK we started a fight and we lost. We ran away and left Nigel behind,'" said Andrew Speed, who represents Ramese-Stanley.

Lawyers for both defendants denied the men kicked Fuatimu repeatedly as he was unconscious and denied ever dropping a brick near his head. The only witness who testified about seeing the defendants kick Fuatimu in the head was Fuatimu's friend, Tauafai Collins, and that statement was inconsistent with his frantic 111 in which he said he didn't know what had happened to his friend.

Police speak with a witness near Jellicoe Park on the night Nigel Fuatimu was found dead. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Speed said his client was so drunk he could barely stand, which makes it unlikely he would have even been able to balance on one foot and kick repeatedly.

Ramese-Stanley did tackle Fuatimu one time as Fuatimu "bear-hugged" co-defendant Tavita on the ground, but it was an effort only to protect his friend, Speed said.

It's possible, the defence suggested, that Fuatimu died from excitement or stress caused by the confrontation or from the tackle - neither of which, they said, would kill a person in normal circumstances without a pre-existing health condition.

"He did what anyone would do in that situation - he tackled the deceased off his friend," Speed said of Ramese-Stanley. "The blow was struck in defence of his friend. It's not a homicidal act. It's not a homicidal blow.

"The outcome was terrible, but nor foreseeable and certainly not intended."

Of the many injuries to Fuatimu's head and neck, all but one were rated between six and 10 on a scale of 1-75, he noted.

"Nobody - including some of the most imminent pathologists in the world - know what caused the death of the deceased," Speed said.

Lawyers for a third defendant - Kitiona Stanley, who is charged with assaulting one of Fuatimu's friends that night - are expected to give the final closing argument tomorrow morning.

Jurors are then set to begin deliberations after Justice Paul Davison gives his own summing up of the case.