One of the men accused of brutally attacking a Wairarapa man and leaving him for dead last October admitted the murder in a text message, a court has been told.
Shawn Mihaka Sullivan, 26, Andrew Dean Kupa-Caudwell, 18, and Rangitera Spencer Walker, 16, pleaded not guilty in the High Court at Wellington today to the murder of 36-year-old Paul Irons.
The Crown alleges the men tackled Mr Irons to the ground and repeatedly kicked him in the early hours of October 9 last year in Featherston.
Mr Irons died in hospital five days later.
Crown prosecutor Simon Barr said the accused were walking into town with two other men some time after midnight when they encountered Mr Irons, who was behaving bizarrely and waving his arms.
Kupa-Caudwell then punched Mr Irons, who ran away, Mr Barr said.
He was then tackled to the ground and dragged into a public garden, where he was kicked, punched and stomped about the head and body.
His injuries included two fractures to his jaw, a fractured eye socket, a punctured lung and internal bleeding, Mr Barr said.
"His brain was shaken inside his skull."
The attack took place for "no apparent reason" and none of the accused called for medical help despite walking past the scene of the attack later that morning.
Kupa-Caudwell stole a cellphone from Mr Irons' bag and tried to call his girlfriend a number of times before discarding the phone, Mr Barr said.
Kupa-Caudwell text messaged his girlfriend from his own phone at about 3.30am: "Babe, please don't text this number back ... I got a crack (a fight) and murdered someone babe."
Mr Irons was found by passers-by about 6.35am, lying behind bushes with his pants pulled around his ankles, unconscious but making slight noises, Mr Barr said.
Bus driver Royce Wiffen told the court he helped Mr Irons after a passenger said she had seen a half-naked man twitching in the bushes.
Mr Wiffen said he was "blown away" when he saw the extent of the injuries to Mr Irons.
His face was "unrecognisable as a face", he said.
Defence counsel Chris Stevenson said Sullivan admitted chasing and tackling Mr Irons, but had not been involved in the later fatal assault.
"He did not kick, he did not stomp," he said.
Defence lawyers for Kupa-Caudwell and Walker did not give opening statements.
The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
