Waimamaku death trial: Shannon Brady accused of murdering Nicholas Baldwin

Shannon Brady is on trial at the High Court in Whangārei for the murder of Nicholas Baldwin. Photo / NZME

One by one, drivers on a quiet Northland road slowed, each catching the same chilling sight: an arm, waving weakly from a ditch.

By the time help reached him, Nicholas Baldwin was dying, and the scene around him suggested more than a simple crash.

“When I saw him and took it all in, that’s when I noticed the tyre marks and the damage to the bank just behind me. It was very obvious to me at that point [that] someone’s hit him with the car,” a witness told the High Court at Whangārei this week.

Shannon Brady, 53, is accused of murdering Nicholas Baldwin by driving his ute at him and leaving him dying on the roadside.

Baldwin was found in the ditch near Waimamaku, in the Far North, about 8am on August 1, 2024.

The Crown alleges Brady hit him with his ute intentionally after issues between the pair escalated in the days before.

On July 29, Brady came home to find a message left on his letterbox written by Baldwin.

“Baldhead. Shanonuts. Dope grower, pay your dues or the mighty notorious will take it all,” the message said.

Crown lawyer Richard Annandale said this message infuriated Brady, who spent the next few days searching for Baldwin.

The Crown is expected to present several text messages sent from Brady’s phone as evidence.

The defence will claim that the collision was an accident, and it was commonly known in the community that Baldwin would routinely walk in front of cars.

About 7.45am on August 1, Baldwin was seen yelling obscenities on Brady’s driveway when police were first called by a neighbour reporting a disturbance.

Baldwin then began walking towards Waimamaku. The Crown alleges he was hit by Brady in his ute sometime between 7.57 and 8.07am.

Two concrete workers heading to a job gave evidence that they saw an arm waving from the ditch and stopped to help.

“He was in pain but still talking,” one told the court.

Both men said they tried to get him up, but he was in too much pain and did not think his injuries were life-threatening.

When they asked him, “Who did this?”, they both gave evidence that Baldwin said, “The Mongrel Mob.”

“I thought that was a bit out of it, because he was all dressed in red,” Whakaaro Riwhi-Witehira told the court.

Under pressure to meet a waiting concrete truck, they had to leave, but made calls to get emergency services to the site.

‘My body hurts’

After they left, Ashley Davenport drove past and saw Baldwin waving from the ditch.

Davenport stopped and called emergency services at 8.41am, but also had to leave to drop his child to kōhanga.

He said he called emergency services at least four times, but when he drove back at 9.30am, Baldwin was still there with no assistance.

“When I asked if he was all good, he said, ‘My body hurts.’”

When Davenport asked him where it hurt, Brady responded, “Everywhere.”

The two men were locals of the small town of Waimamaku in the Far North. Photo / Google.

Davenport then asked him what happened.

“He said he was beat up. I asked who did it. That’s when he mentioned Shannon, there was no last name,” Davenport said.

A fourth local, Nathanial Masters, pulled up around this time and saw people on the phone to emergency services.

He then noticed the tyre tracks, and gave his evidence about someone hitting the victim with a car.

Masters also confirmed that, when he asked Baldwin who had injured him, “He repeated the name ‘Shannon’ a few more times.”

Baldwin deteriorated soon afterwards and was pronounced dead at the roadside just after 10am.

Forensic pathologist Sinead McCarty gave evidence that he died from blunt-force trauma injuries to the pelvis and head.

His pelvis had fractured into multiple pieces, and the injuries sustained were consistent with a collision with a motor vehicle, she said.

The trial continues before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.