A 37-year-old Hastings man was yesterday found guilty of murdering Splash Planet security guard Hugh Mills nine months ago.
Dennis Ronald Sandilands was found guilty after the seven-man, four-woman jury deliberated for four hours at the end of a seven-day trial in the High Court at Napier.
He will be sentenced on
August 15 on the murder charge and additional charges of arson and burglary.
Sandilands had admitted those offences at an earlier court hearing.
Members of both families wept in the public gallery after the foreman delivered the verdict.
Sandilands killed Mr Mills, a 49-year-old father of six, with several blows to the head with a piece of wood from a trellis at the Hastings park after Mr Mills had disturbed him burgling the office.
Summing up to the jury yesterday morning, Justice Gendall said the Crown needed to prove that Sandilands had either deliberately killed Mr Mills or caused him such serious injury that death was likely to ensue and been reckless about whether death occurred or not, or had injured Mr Mills to facilitate his flight from the scene of a crime and help him avoid being detected.
The defence case, presented by Russell Fairbrother, was that Sandilands had grabbed a piece of wood in the dark in a panic and hit Mr Mills.
Justice Gendall told jurors Sandilands did not deny killing Mr Mills, but the defence contended that because he was in the grip of a bi-polar affective disorder he was not capable of forming the intent to kill.
The defence also said that the Crown had not proved that Sandilands burgled the water park's buildings before he killed Mr Mills.
Justice Gendall said the vital issues for the jury were whether Sandilands meant to cause Mr Mills such grievous bodily injury that he died, and had the Crown proved such intent.
- NZPA
