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'Instructed by God' killer found not guilty in pawnshop killings

Author
NZ Newswire,
Publish Date
Wed, 8 Nov 2017, 4:49PM
Zarn Tarapata has been declared a 'special patient' and will be held at a secure facility. Photo/NZ Herald
Zarn Tarapata has been declared a 'special patient' and will be held at a secure facility. Photo/NZ Herald

'Instructed by God' killer found not guilty in pawnshop killings

Author
NZ Newswire,
Publish Date
Wed, 8 Nov 2017, 4:49PM

A man who stabbed two Auckland pawnshop workers to death in an unprovoked attack has been found not guilty by way of insanity.

Lawyers for Zarn Tarapata never denied the 27-year-old attacked Takanini Ezy Cash owner Paul Fanning, 69, and 47-year-old employee Paul Matthews in the lunch room of the shop in July, 2014, stabbing them a total 21 times.

But his defence argued he was legally insane at the time and believed he was being instructed by God.

It took the jury at the High Court at Auckland four hours of deliberation on Wednesday to find him not guilty of murder.

Tarapata remained silent, staring on as he had done through the trial, as the verdict was read.

He is expected to be declared a "special patient" to be held at a secure mental facility and only released when deemed safe.

During the trial, prosecutors said a "very unwell" Tarapata incorrectly believed his partner - who worked at the store - was having an affair with the men, sending him into a delusional, jealous rage.

His former partner, Tamara Cassie, told the court the defendant took a Bible with him everywhere, claimed God spoke to him and had made "sacrifices" of meat in burning rituals in the months before the attack.

The key question put to the jurors was whether the accused had been so unwell he didn't understand what he was doing was morally wrong.

Three psychiatrists gave evidence to the court. Two agreed Tarapata was insane at the time, the third gave evidence to the contrary.

But while psychiatrists agreed Tarapata suffered from schizophrenia, this did not preclude his guilt, Crown lawyer Richard Marchant said.

"All the experts have said to you a person with this kind of mental illness can appreciate what he is doing is morally wrong," he told the court.

"He was jealous and he was angry."

Tarapata, Marchant told the jury, had only talked about divine messages months after the killings and had tried to hide evidence - showing he knew what he was doing was wrong.

But defence lawyer Jonathan Krebs said Tarapata's actions were so out of character and explosive, they only made sense through the lens of schizophrenia.

The case was not a simple either-or between jealousy and insanity, he said.

"(Insanity) is not a defence in a sense that is some sort of legal construct that permits the guilty to go free," Mr Krebs quoted from another court decision.

"It is a recognition by the law that a person may ... be so disordered in their thinking, that at the time they lack the capacity to be held responsible."

- NZ Newswire

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