Three teenagers have pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a 90-year-old woman after she was attacked at her home in Levin.
Grace Virtue died from a brain injury three weeks after the home invasion and assault in November last year.
A trial for the three teenagers started at the High Court in Palmerston North yesterday and was expected to last three weeks.
The teens had name suppression - the youngest was 14 - and all pleaded not guilty to murder.
However, this afternoon the trio pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
They will be sentenced on November 13.
Earlier, the jury was told that the teens had planned the home invasion on Facebook messenger and targeted Virtue because she was elderly and lived alone.
Virtue's niece, Wendy O'Moore, told the court that she and her husband had driven to her aunt's home after the invasion.
O'Moore said her aunt "looked pretty rough" and "felt foolish" for letting two of the girls inside.
She said her aunt had pleaded with the girls not to kick her in the head - she had fallen to the ground and was kicked in the ribs - and suffered bruising to the right side of her face.
A teen witness, who also has name suppression, described two of the accused as having "red knuckles" as well as having new items of clothing and tobacco with them.
She told the court one of the accused confided in her a day later that she had hurt Virtue and was "freaking out" that she was "going to get done for this".
