Shane Claude Roberts guilty of manslaughter of Rotorua baby Karlos Stephens

A jury has found Shane Claude Roberts not guilty of the murder of 10-month-old Karlos Stephens, from Rotorua, but guilty of manslaughter.

The jury returned the verdict 11-1 after 10 hours of deliberation.

He has been placed in preventive detention for his sentence on February 12.

The trial began last Monday before Judge Sarah Katz and was heard by a jury of six women and six men.

Roberts, 61, pleaded not guilty to the murder of baby Karlos Stephens sometime between November 29-30, 2014.

The Crown argued that the baby suffered a “forceful and probably violent” assault at the hands of Roberts that caused fatal head trauma, but the defense said the baby’s mother, Pamela Stephens, likely caused the fatal injuries.

Stephens had entrusted the care of Karlos and her twin brother to Roberts in early 2014 after meeting him for only a few weeks, as she had been struggling to care for them.

Roberts, his ex-wife, and their two twin daughters shared in caring for the babies.

On the weekend of November 29, Roberts’ ex-wife and daughters went to Christchurch and Roberts invited Stephens to stay at his home on Alison St to see the children.

The Crown said Roberts left the children with Stephens for a short time before taking them to his ex-wife’s home on Homedale St.

Baby Karlos was injured at this address, where “traces of vomit” were found throughout the house.

However, the defense said Roberts had left the children with Stephens while he was with friends and picked up a sick and potentially injured Karlos at 3 a.m. and brought him to Homedale St.

Without a doubt, he arrived at Alison St at 7.30am and told Stephens that “Karlos was not breathing” and the couple made their way to the hospital where the 10-month-old boy died shortly thereafter.

A medical examination found that the baby had suffered a “significant” head injury that could not have been “accidental,” the Crown said.

Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon said the case was a “tragedy”: For Stephens, who was “so desperate,” she gave her children a virtual stranger, but even more so for Karlos, who died of an assault. energetic and probably violent at the hands of a perpetrator who did nothing about it.

Gordon said that Karlos had died as a result of trauma that caused bleeding on the surface of his brain and behind his eyes. The force required to injure Karlos in this way was similar to falling from a height or being in a car accident.

There was no evidence that Karlos had suffered an accidental injury and it was clear that he had been the victim of abusive trauma, he said.

He said Roberts had created a “trail of lies” to cover up what happened.

Roberts ‘attorney, Simon Lance, spoke about Stephens’ previous methamphetamine use, her mental health issues and how she was “prepared to hand over her twins to a man she barely knew” three weeks after meeting him.

He said she was suffering from “significant mental illness and stress” at the time, so the jury had to be cautious in relying on her evidence.

He asked the jury to recall evidence from Stephens’ earlier defense that closed the door and “strangled” another of his sons, he said.

No photographs of the scene or forensic evidence linked Roberts to Karlos’s death, and all of the lying allegations could have been Roberts trying to protect Stephens, he suggested.

He said jurors had had to put their emotions aside and “focus only on the evidence.”