Ihaia Gillman-Harris The High Court jury in the Epsom motel murder case will this morning begin its third day of deliberations as to whether two youths are guilty of murdering a gay man in late December 2014. Ihaia Gillman-Harris, 54, died hours after an incident at the Ascot Motel in the Auckland inner-city suburb. The crown says two youths, Beauen Wallace-Loretz and Leonard Nattrass-Bergquist, both 17 at the time, set out to attack and rob the older man. The defense says the violence was a direct result of Gillman-Harris making a violent sexual attack on Nattrass-Bergquist against which the youths defended themselves. The two youths each face charges of murder, aggravated robbery and theft of a vehicle. The jury retired to consider its verdict on Thursday afternoon and as of Friday night had not reached a conclusion. The presiding judge, Justice Kit Toogood, has made it clear to the jury that to find a verdict of murder the crown must have proved that either the pair set out to kill Gillman-Harris or that they attacked him with reckless disregard for whether he lived or died. The defense, on the other hand, only has to show that their is reasonable doubt that neither of those scenarios is applicable. If the pair are found by the jury to be not guilty they have an alternative finding of manslaughter available as an alternative.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 26th April 2016 - 8:47am