A jury has found Nathan Moscrip not guilty of causing the death of his friend, Brodie Ruatara, following a fight over text messages to a girl.

A High Court jury at Rotorua of seven men and five women deliberated for about four hours and returned a not guilty to manslaughter verdict at 5pm yesterday.

The trial lasted eight days and was before Justice Helen McQueen.

Moscrip, 29, a logger from Hastings, was accused of causing Ruatara’s death after the pair had a physical fight at a house in Taupō on August 12, 2023.

The court heard Ruatara suffered a blow or blows to his head which went untreated. He went to sleep later in the evening at his girlfriend’s Kinloch home but never woke up.

Moscrip successfully claimed self-defence, saying he punched his friend but only because Ruatara was angry at him.

Moscrip, who gave evidence in his defence, said Ruatara was wrongly suggesting there was something going on between him and Ruatara’s girlfriend.

Moscrip said Ruatara swung at him first and missed. He said he “jabbed” Ruatara and they came together in a struggle before falling to the ground.

Ruatara hit his head on a concrete footpath before Moscrip, who was on top, punched his friend again. Another associate pulled Moscrip off Ruatara to end the fight.

Moscrip’s lawyer, Ron Mansfield KC, told the jury it didn’t matter who threw the first punch, self-defence was a legal defence if it could be proved it was being used to avoid being a victim of violence.

Mansfield said in this case Ruatara went to a Taupō house where Moscrip was playing darts and drinking with friends in a garage to sort out issues over Ruatara’s perceived view there was something going on between Moscrip and his girlfriend.

Mansfield told the jury Ruatara was angry, had been drinking and smoking methamphetamine and was “whipped up”.

He said Moscrip fought with Ruatara but no one knew how serious Ruatara’s head injury was.

Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy said Moscrip punched Ruatara in the head delivering what turned out to be a fatal blow.

She said after the first punch, Ruatara stumbled backwards, they fell to the ground and Moscrip was on top of Ruatara delivering more forceful punches to Ruatara’s head.

McConachy pointed out several times to the jury Moscrip sent his sister a Snapchat message later that night telling her Ruatara turned up “with attitude” so he had to “smack him around a bit”.

McConachy said the message didn’t suggest Moscrip was reacting in self-defence.