Prestman Vesiuta Tauira in court in 2006. File photo / Greg Bowker
Prestman Vesiuta Tauira in court in 2006. File photo / Greg Bowker
KEY POINTS:
A jury has been unable to decide if an Auckland man murdered a young father by driving a car into him.
The jury returned just after 1pm after deliberating for about 24 hours.
It is the second trial of Prestman Vesiputa which has ended in a hung jury.The Crown has just indicated it will apply for a third trial. Prestman has been remanded on bail.
Tauira, 27, has been on trial at the High Court at Auckland for the past five weeks for the murder of Faafetai Lafolua in Otahuhu, south Auckland, on August 18, 2006.
The first trial, almost a year ago, ended in a hung jury when jurors were unable to decide if he was guilty or not.
Mr Lafolua, a 24 year-old father of three, got into a fight when attending a vigil at a shrine erected to Haruru Pekepo who had been shot dead a month earlier.
Lafolua was then struck by a car and dragged underneath it for 2.4km.
The Crown said Tauira deliberately drove into the crowd but Tauira said the death was accidental.
While he didn't deny he was driving the car that hit Lafolua, he told the court he didn't mean to hit anyone and was only trying to break the fighting crowd up.
The jury retired to consider their verdicts at 1pm yesterday.
They returned to ask several questions this morning, including one about the burden of proof required to find a defendant guilty.
Justice Christopher Allan reminded them it was up to the Crown to prove someone's guilt and they had to be sure someone was guilty beyond reasonable doubt before a guilty verdict could be reached.
