Man charged with JJ's murder

Two year-old James Joseph Ruhe Lawrence - known as JJ. Photo / Supplied

Auckland police have arrested a 29-year-old Mangere man and charged him with the murder of two year-old James Joseph 'JJ' Ruhe Lawrence.

The accused, a former Orakei resident, will appear in Auckland District Court tomorrow.
JJ died on November 14 at the Orakei house where he lived with his mother and her boyfriend.

Police said he died from injuries suffered as the result of blunt-force trauma to his abdomen.

He was struck so hard in the stomach that one of his major internal organs split in half.

Emergency services were called at about 11.15am, but JJ was already dead when they got there - despite the CPR efforts of several adults at the house - and a homicide investigation was launched.

JJ lived at the Takitimu St house with his mother Josephine Takutai Crystal Lawrence, 26, her partner and another couple with two young infants. All six were home when he died.

Miss Lawrence moved into the house with JJ in July. Before that she had been living with the little boy, who would have turned 3 in March, in Tauranga.

Miss Lawrence is pregnant with her second child and Child Youth and Family is considering removing the new baby from her custody after its birth.

JJ was born at Auckland Hospital in March 2009. His father James Robert Ruhe was said to be "devastated" and "lost" when told of JJ's death.

Ruhe is in prison and did not seek compassionate leave to attend the toddler's tangi near Kaeo. Instead, the Department of Corrections allowed him to transfer to a prison closer to his family in Northland so they could support him.