KEY POINTS:
A man who fatally punched a teenager during a fight in a Whangarei street has been acquitted of manslaughter after the jury accepted he acted in self defence.
Whare Junior Pitman, 20, was on trial in the High Court at Whangarei after pleading not guilty.
The Crown alleged
that Pitman, a trained boxer, attacked 19-year-old Anaru Tamihana in Vine St about 5.40am on July 16 last year.
The defence said that Mr Tamihana had started the fight and Pitman was acting in self defence when he inflicted the fatal blow.
The court heard that the blow severed a vital artery.
The jury retired at 3.30pm on Monday after hearing closing addresses from the Crown and defence and Justice Pamela Andrews' summing-up.
They took just under two hours to reach a verdict, which was cheered by Pitman's supporters.
Mr Tamihana's stepmother, Mickey Birchall, was visibly upset.
In his closing address, Crown prosecutor Kim Thomas said that security-camera images showed Pitman in complete control of the fight and argued that Pitman was never under any real threat of harm.
Pitman was sober and had boxing skills, but Mr Tamihana was drunk and his punches had no impact on Pitman. Mr Thomas argued that Pitman had attacked Mr Tamihana because he was angry at him for assaulting his girlfriend moments earlier. He said Pitman did not walk away after the initial confrontation with Mr Tamihana, but returned and threw more punches.
Defence lawyer Arthur Fairley told the jury the Crown had not proved beyond reasonable doubt that Pitman had not acted in self defence.
He said the images showed Pitman walking away from the fight and Mr Tamihana following and confronting Pitman again.
The Crown argued that those images were of Pitman "regrouping" the way a boxer does in the ring before coming back to throw more punches.
But Mr Fairley rejected that.
"Clearly the deceased has got up and is having another go at the accused who has walked off," Mr Fairley said.
At that point, Pitman was entitled to defend himself regardless of whether he was a boxer or not.
"If the deceased had stopped ... and had turned around and walked away, I suggest he would be alive today and that would have been the end of it."
After the verdict, Justice Andrews formally discharged Pitman and told him he was free to go.