He’d left it parked on Wall St but Crown prosecutor Jacinda Hamilton told the jury it was Faiers, accompanied by associates and family, who stole the Ford Ranger.
Shortland and his older brother, Isaiah, learned the ute was at a Nawton property and turned up keen to get it back.
Isaiah earlier testified that when they arrived, Faiers, 25, and a friend were there in her car. He pulled up directly beside her driver’s window and asked where the ute was but she sped off.
Shortland would soon get out of the car and knock on the door of the house, where he believed the ute was parked.
Told it wasn’t there, he left and was crossing the road when the Crown alleges Faiers “lined him up” and drove into Shortland with such force that he crashed into the windscreen and flipped onto the roof.
He travelled a short distance with his arms outstretched, trying to grab onto the doors but fell as Faiers drove around a bend. He suffered critical head injuries and died less than three weeks later in Waikato Hospital.
In closing submissions, Hamilton said Shortland’s death was a tragic situation because it was “completely avoidable” and irrevocably changed the lives of his whānau forever.
“It didn’t need to happen. Mr Shortland died and Ms Faiers is here because of a choice she made. One action she took. One that was deliberate. One that has consequences.”
Faiers’ evidence at trial was that she never meant to hurt Shortland and didn’t realise that by driving into him, he could die.
“She didn’t know ... that a car hitting a pedestrian could kill them,” Hamilton told the jury today.
“She thought it might hurt them but she had no appreciation a person could die from their injuries after being hit by a car.
“I suggest she’s no fool, but she’s trying to fool you.”
Hamilton reminded them the only part they had to focus on in determining whether she was guilty of murder was when Faiers “slammed” into her former partner at a speed of between 40-50km/h.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? A vehicle is a large object made of steel. It’s big and powerful,” she said, unlike a human with fragile bones.
“There’s always going to be a likelihood of death.”
The couple had been in a relationship off and on for a number of years. However, Shortland was also still in a relationship with the mother of his 8-year-old child, and stayed with her the night before he died.
“I suggest it’s not easy to be part of a triangle,” Hamilton said.
“It’s a recipe for hurt and pain. Where there’s hurt and pain in a relationship, there’s also hostility and anger.”
Hamilton said Faiers was driving up and down Breckons Ave that evening “like a maniac, like a woman possessed” and after hitting Shortland, turned around and drove toward him again.
“Ms Faiers says her actions were not deliberate. The Crown says her actions at the time were very deliberate.”
Murder verdict ‘not safe’
Defence counsel Mark Sturm agreed the case was a tragedy not only for the Shortland whānau, but also for Faiers and her whānau.
He told the jury finding his client guilty of murder would not be “safe”.
“Not in every case where a person’s actions kill another person is it murder.
“If the act of killing occurred without this murderous intent but still with a culpable aspect ... then the crime committed will be manslaughter.”
At no point did his client know her actions would kill Shortland, but she did accept she did wrong, he said.
Finding her guilty beyond reasonable doubt was a high threshold; the jury had to be sure.
Sturm submitted the Crown was trying to make Faiers out to be angry that evening, something he said they needed to do to make out she had murderous intent.
“She wasn’t angry. She was just upset.”
The jury was considering a case that was all based on a “split-second basis”.
He said it wasn’t so simple to say that by driving at a pedestrian, life would be in jeopardy.
“It’s not as open and shut as the Crown suggests.”
Whatever happened, there would be no winners.
“Everybody is worse off, everyone loses, no matter what your verdicts are.”
Justice Anne Hinton will sum up the case on Monday morning before sending the jury out to begin deliberations.
Belinda Feek has been a reporter for 19 years, and at the Herald for eight years before joining the Open Justice team in 2021.
