{"id":305028,"date":"2026-02-27T15:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/305028\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T15:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:11:10","slug":"defence-in-whangarei-murder-trial-closes-arguing-anaru-morunga-had-an-imaginative-grip-on-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/305028\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence in Whang\u0101rei murder trial closes, arguing Anaru Morunga had an \u2018imaginative grip on reality\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morunga has been on trial in the High Court at Whang\u0101rei<\/a> on eight charges, including murder, related to events surrounding the death of his ex-partner, 35-year-old Jasmaine Reihana.<\/p>\n

The couple had two children together but separated in 2018. It was unclear what the status of their relationship was at the time of her death on September 8, 2024, after they had attended a tangi together in \u014ctorohanga.<\/p>\n

For 10 days, the jury has heard evidence from multiple Crown witnesses, including forensic experts and police officers, about events that occurred across the days leading up to Reihana\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The Crown alleges Morunga murdered Reihana<\/a> by stabbing her at the Pouto peninsula home in Northland that he shared with his mother, Suzanne Morunga, and her partner Michael Jones.<\/p>\n

He is also accused of arson after allegedly setting Reihana\u2019s car alight with her body inside at the far end of the Ripir\u014d Beach farm, before fleeing and leading police on a State Highway 12 chase that ended with his arrest near the Brynderwyn Hills.<\/p>\n

Today, he changed his plea on two of the eight charges he has been defending, admitting charges related to unlawfully taking a tractor and quad bike owned by his boss, Chris Biddles.<\/p>\n

On the other charges, Morunga has repeatedly acknowledged killing Reihana, telling police he cut her throat before placing her body in her car and towing it to the beach by tractor. He continues to deny that he was the one who set the vehicle alight.<\/p>\n

That admission has not only been heard by the jury through his evidential interview<\/a> with police played in court, but also when he chose to take the stand yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just walked over to her, grabbed her, pulled the knife out and cut her throat,\u201d he said in his police interview recorded in September 2024.<\/p>\n

But when he gave close to four hours of evidence yesterday, his narrative changed. <\/p>\n

He claimed Reihana had a gun and he had to kill her to protect his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pulled, she pulled, I won,\u201d he testified. <\/p>\n

He then demonstrated for the court how he cut Reihana\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n

\"JasmaineJasmaine Reihana had two children with Anaru Morunga and had been separated from him for some time.<\/p>\n

In Crown closings, prosecutor Bernadette O\u2019Connor told the jury Morunga was making things up to fit the evidence that had been presented. <\/p>\n

\u201cFolding up the paper napkin so it resembled a knife. Not something he was asked to do, something he did of his own volition to demonstrate how he killed Ms Reihana,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. <\/p>\n

\u201cClaiming he didn\u2019t mean for her to die. I submit that flies in the face of the evidence and flies in the face of common sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe meant to kill her.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said there were eight pages of transcript of Morunga detailing the slaying, even saying he was good with knives and trained to kill animals humanely.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t seem to afford that humane killing to Jasmaine Reihana,\u201d O\u2019Connor said.<\/p>\n

She said the new story about a gun being present was \u201csimply not true\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I pointed out he has never mentioned it, he said \u2018I was a very broken man then\u2019,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA broken man? Or a man who was relaxed, enjoying his moment in the spotlight?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"DefenceDefence lawyer Arthur Fairley broke his silence after two weeks of evidence was presented against his client. Photo \/ Thomson Wilson<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said Morunga had made a \u201cfantastical story\u201d that Reihana was having an affair, she was going to kill his family and sell his children to the Mongrel Mob.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will come up with anything that he can to get away with murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said he was high on methamphetamine, and being under the influence of drugs was not a defence to murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fault for her murder lies solely and squarely at the feet of Anaru Morunga.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the trial, Morunga\u2019s lawyer, Arthur Fairley, did not cross-examine many witnesses and did not give an opening statement to the jury.<\/p>\n

Today, in his closing address to the jury, he began by acknowledging the overwhelming evidence presented at the trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would suggest to you, members of the jury, there wouldn\u2019t be a heart in this room that wouldn\u2019t be tugged by that,\u201d Fairley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in this room, in a trial like this, we\u2019re not allowed to have our hearts tugged.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fairley said the key issue for determining the murder charge relied on establishing Morunga\u2019s intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts are, none of us were there,\u201d Fairley submitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made some remarkable concessions for a man in a murder trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the point. You might think the mind we\u2019re dealing with at the material time had an imaginative grip of reality. But that\u2019s the quality of the mind that has to be taken into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fairley submitted that Morunga had not uttered that he was going to kill Reihana before, during or after the act and therefore did not have murderous intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsolate what the issues are and try to give some analysis,\u201d Morunga said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the murder, they can\u2019t make you sure what was in this man\u2019s head at the material time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can\u2019t make you sure, he\u2019s not guilty of murder; it\u2019s manslaughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury was released for the weekend and will return on Monday for Justice David Johnstone\u2019s summation of the case.<\/p>\n

They will then retire to consider the verdicts.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morunga has been on trial in the High Court at Whang\u0101rei on eight charges, including murder, related to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8831,45451,37427,18509,1403,23437,1351,166937,78,52475,4275,111,43,139,69,90,6045,54,1869],"class_list":{"0":"post-305028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-an","9":"tag-anaru","10":"tag-arguing","11":"tag-closes","12":"tag-defence","13":"tag-grip","14":"tag-had","15":"tag-imaginative","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-morunga","18":"tag-murder","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-on","24":"tag-reality","25":"tag-trial","26":"tag-whangrei"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}