Corey Norman Milne (41) yesterday plead guilty to injuring Trent Soper with intent on February 5 this year, when he appeared on the first day of a jury trial before Judge Duncan Harvey in the Invercargill District Court.
He denied the alternative, more serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and also plead not guilty to assault with intent to injure.
Crown lawyer Mike Brownlie said the jury would need to determine if Milne intended to cause Mr Soper serious harm by punching him repeatedly while he was on the ground and stomping on him.
It was also up to jurors to decide whether a further assault outside the garage took place.
Milne’s friend, Joseph Dawson, said Mr Soper was at Milne’s house drinking along with others on the evening/morning of February 4 and 5.
Mr Dawson joined Mr Soper to look for his girlfriend who had already left the party.
After they looked around the house, Mr Dawson knocked and slightly opened the bedroom door where Milne’s partner Ebony Cooper was sleeping.
Mr Soper then kicked the bedroom door causing it to bang against something in the room, waking Ms Cooper up.
Ms Cooper then rang Milne who was out on the street looking for Mr Soper’s girlfriend.
Mr Dawson said when Milne returned to the garage he was yelling at Mr Soper, saying he had "woken up his missus" and that he was being disrespectful.
It was then that Milne punched Soper in the head about three times, beginning with an upper cut, knocking him unconscious.
Crown lawyer Mike Brownlie asked Mr Dawson how he knew he was unconscious.
"His body went all jelly, he just collapsed," he said.
Milne continued to punch Mr Soper and kick him in the head, which included a stomp to the head, Mr Dawson said.
Treana Templeton said she and Mr Dawson then dragged Mr Soper, who was covered in blood, out of the garage with the intention to drive away from the house and get him help.
While Mr Dawson said he saw Milne kick Mr Soper again by the car, Ms Templeton said he tried to hit him again while out on the driveway but she could not remember if he did or not.
Under cross-examination by Milne’s lawyer Roger Eagles, Mr Dawson denied it was him wearing Mr Milne’s gumboots on the night Mr Soper was beaten up.
Ms Templeton said she thought Milne was wearing gumboots at the time of the fight but when questioned further by Mr Eagles, said he could have been wearing jandals.
Mr Brownlie read out the evidence of Institute of Environmental Science and Research forensic scientist Jennifer Howarth, who reported DNA found on Milne’s gumboot was six hundred thousand, million times more likely to be Mr Soper’s than anyone else’s DNA.
In an agreed admission of facts read out to jurors, Southland Hospital emergency department doctor Travis Westcott said Mr Soper had four facial lacerations treated.
The trial continues today.
