It was murder central in the High Court at Auckland last week, with four cases being called. "Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest." – WH Auden. An 80-year-old grandmother. A 36-year-old Samoan man. A 23-year-old drug user. A six-month-old baby. Four people from disparate backgrounds who died violently and whose stories have, by a quirk of timing, overlapped in the same courthouse. Something stood out from the ordinary at the Auckland High Court last Monday. Four murder cases were called, a statistical blip no doubt, but a reminder of how life can end brutally, with a knife to the chest or a boot to the face. The cases did not conform to stereotype. Besides a kitchen knife, weapons were in short supply – other victims were stomped, punched or shaken. Motives too appeared to be thin on the ground. Jealousy might be at the heart of one case but, in others, the accused had, according to the Crown, just lost control. Nothing shines a light on secret lives like a murder trial. Court 15, Crown v Martin Dennis Olley Olley is demonstrating how a kitchen knife he was holding ended up embedded in the chest of his friend John Chambers. The incident occurred in the communal kitchen of the Eden Park Lodge boarding house on September 11 last year. The Crown alleges Olley stabbed Chambers in the heart after a deal to sell some jewellery for drugs fell through. In a rare move, Olley has taken the stand in his own defence. Crown prosecutors relish nothing more than the chance to cross-examine a murder accused, and baritone-voiced Kevin Glubb is in his element. Olley says Chambers came at him with the knife and tried to stab him in the neck. "Show us how he did that," says Glubb. "Madam registrar, do you have a ruler? Let's pretend that ruler represents the knife." Olley, dressed in a suit and tie, is handed a metal ruler. Olley asks if Glubb will stand in front of him so he can show what happened. "I'm not getting too close to you," deadpans Glubb, prompting chuckles from the public gallery. Olley shows how the knife came towards his neck, and he quickly brought up his arm in a blocking manoeuvre. "It saved me from getting stabbed." Glubb suggests that is "nonsense", as he would have suffered defensive wounds but only had a superficial scratch. "It doesn't stack up," Glubb says. "No I disagree, Mr Prosecutor," says Olley, who keeps his cool despite repeated claims he is lying. A third man came into the kitchen and took the knife from Chambers, the court is told. Olley is alleged to have grabbed the knife and thrust it into Chambers' heart while he was sitting in a chair. "He was still sitting when he got shanked," the witness had said in earlier testimony. Olley disputes this. Chambers, he says, thrust himself forward from the chair towards him, and he feared for his life. He says he was holding the knife with the handle facing forward and the blade up his forearm, but he brought it up as Chambers arrived and it "connected" with his chest. Everyone in the court is riveted as Olley, again using the ruler, shows how he did it. How often do you see an accused killer reliving the critical moment? "I suggest you were just so angry, you saw red," says Glubb. "The total opposite – fear," says Olley. "I did not intentionally try to hurt Mr Chambers." Late on Thursday night, the jury returns, but botches its reading of the verdict. The foreman initially said guilty of murder, but later corrected that to not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter. Court 5, Crown v Solofa Aiono Aiono is waiting to hear his fate after a two-week trial. His jury has been deliberating since the previous afternoon. Aiono, 37, is also accused of killing a friend, 36-year-old Sanele Sanato, who died outside his Manurewa home in February, 2009. The force of the attack was such that blood was splattered on a nearby car and house, and a footprint mark was left on Sanato's face. The attack allegedly occurred after Aiono was told about an affair between his wife and Sanato. Outside the court, more than a dozen Samoan women and several children wait to hear the verdict. The jury eventually comes back with its non-verdict – it is hung. All the players will return next year. Court 6, Crown v Olinale Ah You Ah You, 30, is alleged to have fatally stomped and kicked Yan Ping Yang, 80, during a robbery of her Manurewa home on June 11, 2008. She died three days later in Middlemore Hospital. During a morning tea break, Ah You is being led to the cells by a security guard when he sees his two young daughters in the public gallery. He has a word with the guard, who beckons the children over. They rush to their dad, who hugs and kisses them. It is a fleeting moment of normality after harrowing medical evidence. Dr Sylvia Boys from Middlemore Hospital's emergency department has given evidence about the night Yang came in. Boys said Yang had extensive facial bruising, her eyes were swollen almost shut, there was bruising to her chest and neck, she was struggling to breathe and was unresponsive. She had multiple rib fractures and a "flail chest", where a segment of the rib cage breaks, becoming detached from the rest of the chest wall. Doctors were concerned about her level of consciousness. "She was only groaning as opposed to anything comprehensible as language," Boys said. She explained how doctors rate consciousness on a scale of three to 15, and Yang was an eight. Anything less than nine, she said, meant the person usually had inadequate reflexes to protect themselves from drowning in their own secretions. The family had said Yang fell at home. "These injuries seemed grossly inconsistent with a fall. They were more consistent with an assault," Boys said. She described how flail chests were usually seen in major trauma cases, such as road crashes or 3m falls. "I've seen a farmer who had a bull ram a gate and squash him into a wall." When Yang left the emergency department, her chances of survival were put at 50 per cent. She regained consciousness and was able to give a statement to police, but died on the third day. Cross examining Boys, defence lawyer Shane Cassidy wanted to know if the others with flail chests, such as the farmer, had osteoporosis as Yang did. She conceded that, because of the osteoporosis, the amount of force required to cause Yang's injuries was less than for a younger, healthier person. "It's still a higher impact than someone in a simple fall. We see a lot of elderly with osteoporosis who fall – they do not get those sorts of injuries." The trial continues. Court 7, Crown v James Allan Hemana The wheels of justice ground to a halt in court seven, where the trial of Hemana, 30, on charges of murdering six-month-old Cezar Taylor, the son of his girlfriend, was postponed. Cezar died from severe head injuries in Starship Hospital on July 28 last year. Police said at the time the injuries were consistent with shaking and a blow to the head. The jury was dismissed after a problem with a juror. A new jury will be sworn in tomorrow.
