Witness claims baby Karlos Stephens’ mother strangled another child after tot’s death

A witness recalled that the mother of baby Karlos Stephens “strangled” another of her children weeks after Karlos’s death, the jury has heard.

The defense case in the murder trial of Shane Claude Roberts, 61, began today with three witnesses taking the stand.

Roberts is on trial for the murder of 10-month-old Karlos sometime between November 29 and November 30, 2014.

Roberts’ attorney, Simon Lance, addressed the jury and told them that there were a number of “loopholes” in the Crown case that they should think about.

He said the defense case included the ex-partner of a friend of Roberts, who alleges she was with them the night before Karlos’s death, a former roommate of Karlos’s mother, and a worker from Oranga Tamariki.

Karlos’s mother, Pamela Stephens, had been staying with a man named Murray Gray for six weeks shortly after Karlos’s death.

Gray took the stand this afternoon and told the court that Stephens was friends with her partner and that she had stayed with them at their Manuka Cres address because she had “nowhere else to live” alone.

She had lived with them until he “caught her doing something to her baby,” referring to another of her other children, and they asked her to leave.

Gray and her family had returned home and heard both Stephens and a baby “screaming,” she said.

He said Stephens had asked his mother if she could take care of one of her children during the day, so he ran into the room and found it locked.

Inside, he could hear Stephens “swearing and screaming” and the baby “drowning,” he said.

He said he “ripped” the door and found Stephens “on top of the baby,” sitting on his stomach and “trying to calm him down” “strangling him.

Stephens’ hands were wrapped around the baby’s neck, he said. He “ripped her off him” and the baby was “red” and “screaming”.

His partner grabbed Stephens ‘baby and called Stephens’ mother to come pick him up, he said.

During cross-examination, Crown Prosecutor Anna McConachy asked why Gray had not told police about this incident when she made a statement in 2018, to which she had no response.

She asked him about an incident during those six weeks in which Roberts had “burned” his driveway by yelling at Stephens to get out, and he said he remembered it and had a chat with Roberts about driving like this with kids around.

She agreed that Stephens had said she was “scared” of Roberts.

Waimania Paul-Ruhi, a partner of one of Roberts’ friends, told the court that she had been with Roberts drinking and playing slot machines on November 29, the night before Karlos died.

He moved to a Meadowbank Cres address with his partner Steven Eparapa, also known as Tilly, in November 2014, after previously living at the Roberts address on Alison St, he said.

She said that on November 29, she, Tilly, and Roberts had been drinking at her house after 6 p.m. They went out briefly to get some money and returned home, before the three of them headed into town around midnight.

He said they had gone to a bar and played slots until 3 in the morning. They left and Roberts left the couple at home.

She didn’t know where Roberts went after that, but she found out from him when her partner received a text message saying that Karlos was dead. She had gone to the hospital that morning.

This version of events was different from the Crown case, which alleged that Roberts had picked up Karlos and his twin brother from Stephens that night after 8pm.

On questioning, Crown Prosecutor Amanda Gordon said that remembering the events of that time was difficult, to what Paul-Ruhi said the little things were.

Gordon asked why she did not think it was important to tell the police at the time that they had been with Roberts the night before, and she said they had not been asked and that she had thought the baby had died from an illness or virus.

The last defense witness, Sarah Easthope-Wilson, who is a senior social worker for Children, Youth and Family, now known as Oranga Tamariki, had visited Roberts when she was caring for the twins.

In 2014, an investigation was launched to locate Karlos and his twin brother, he said.

She recalled showing up at Roberts’s door on Alison St and finding beautiful, healthy twins who had a “strong bond” with Roberts.

She described the children’s mother, Pamela Stephens, as “evasive” and said there were “neglect” concerns about her with the twins.

She made random visits to her property and said she “had no concerns” about the care or property on Alison St where Roberts was raising them.

The witness will return to the stand tomorrow morning.

The trial continues.