Lacey Te Whetu today giving evidence in the High Court trial of her mother. Photo / Stephen Parker
Lacey Te Whetu today giving evidence in the High Court trial of her mother. Photo / Stephen Parker
WARNING: Contains court evidence that some people may find upsetting.
A young mother has spoken of her panic in trying to revive her baby son left in a car to sleep while she smoked synthetic cannabis.
Lacey Te Whetu, 29, was giving evidence in the High Court trial of hermother, Donna Parangi, who pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of her grandson.
Isaiah Neil was eight months old when he died at his grandparents' home in Ruatoki, near Whakatane, in November 2015.
The infant died from heatstroke after being left in a hot car for several hours, according to the Crown which alleges Parangi is responsible for his death.
In giving sometimes tearful evidence, Te Whetu told the jury her mother - who was working fulltime, sometimes six days a week - helped her look after Isaiah and her older children.
"I wasn't capable," said Te Whetu, because of her drug addiction. She was spending hundreds of dollars on black market synthetic cannabis.
"From the moment I woke up, to the moment I went to sleep at night….as much as I could get my hands on."
Donna Catherine Parangi has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges. Photo / Stephen Parker
She said her mother would smoke synthetics at home after work.
Most often, Te Whetu and Parangi purchased the drugs together from a cousin in Kawerau.
On the morning of 2 November 2015, mother and daughter drove to see a different dealer - one of Parangi's work colleagues.
They took Isaiah with them, strapped into his baby seat in the back of the car. Te Whetu's two older children were at kohanga reo.
A $40 bag of synthetics would last one day in the house, said Te Whetu. They used a homemade bong.
After buying the synthetics, Te Whetu and Parangi returned to Ruatoki with Isaiah. He fell asleep in the car on the way home.
Te Whetu said they parked the car outside the back-step of the house around midday.
Later, Te Whetu learned about other bruises on Isaiah, as well as an adult bite mark on his elbow.
She wasn't aware of how the injuries were inflicted.
Te Whetu will continue to give evidence on Wednesday.
Earlier in the hearing, Te Whetu's former partner Shane Neil finished giving his evidence.
Neil also smoked synthetics on the day his son Isaiah died. He had fallen asleep but when he woke up, Neil said he found Isaiah inside the car parked outside.
Around 6pm, Neil said he woke up and checked on Isaiah again.
His son was "saturated" with sweat, said Neil, and seemed lifeless so he woke up Te Whetu.
They stripped the clothes off Isaiah and started sprinkling cold water on him, in an attempt to cool him down.
By this point, Neil said he and his partner were in "full panic mode".
"He was gone. Lacey was trembling, screaming, out of control," said Neil. "She was holding him up under the arms, saying 'my baby', those sort of words.
Under cross-examination by her defence lawyer Susan Gray, Neil conceded to having memory lapses about what happened the day his son died. He had no memory of his two older children being dropped home from kohanga at 2.35pm.
He also admitted falling back to sleep after Lacey Te Whetu called 111.
Gray questioned the changing nature of his statements to police and described some of his evidence as a "figment of your imagination".
"You've got massive memory blanks on that day," said Gray.
She questioned how he could possibly remember that the doors and windows of the car were shut.
