A 50-year-old man has been found guilty of arson and murdering five people at a Wellington hostel.
The jury, of six women and four men, took 17 hours to decide following a nearly five-week trial at the High Court.
The man, who can be now named as Esarona David Lologa, lit the two fires at Loafers Lodge in Newtown on May 16, 2023.
Five people died. They were Michael Eric Wahrlich, 67, also known as Mike the Juggler; Melvin Parun, 68; Kenneth Barnard, 67; Peter Glenn O’Sullivan, 64; and Liam James Hockings, 50.
There is no dispute he lit the fire, but his lawyers had argued the man – who has paranoid schizophrenia – was not guilty by reason of insanity.
Earlier in the trial, appearing for the defence, forensic psychiatrist Dr Krishna Pillai, said the man had suffered a “serious psychotic relapse” and CCTV footage the day of the fire showed the man “pounding” up and down stairs and through the halls of the hostel.
“[He] believed that individuals at Loafers Lodge were targeting him for intimidation purposes at that time, but he also feared that he was to be harmed,” Pillai said.
The Crown said the man knew lighting the fire was wrong, and he did so because he did not like living at the hostel.
It countered the defence’s argument by producing five of its own expert witnesses who said he didn’t qualify for a defence of insanity.
They raised concerns about the reliability of the man’s account of the night, and his ability to accurately describe his symptoms.
“Previously he had referred to voices starting that night that had whispered to him. Now he’s telling me the devil was talking to him, and the devil’s voice was loud, and the devil’s voice had been there for four years. These are things that I’d not heard from [the man] before,” said forensic psychiatrist Dr Justin Barry-Walsh.
The Crown called around 100 witnesses over its four weeks of evidence.
This included residents who spoke of desperate escapes, some trapped in their rooms, and others forced to jump out windows.
“If I didn’t, I was probably gonna die that night, but I didn’t really want to do it,” said Loafers Lodge resident Faamatala Sili.
A 111 call by Hockings also played – he never made it out.
Firefighters with decades of experience wept in the stand as they recalled the night, where they too had their own narrow escape, as the fire threatened to engulf them.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand station officer Joshua Leceve feared the roof was going to collapse on them.
“When I touched the ceiling, I could feel the heat through my glove and had to pull my hand away. I gave it a little push and there was a bit of movement. I believe that this was structural instability,” he said.
Other firefighters spoke of the tough task of first finding trapped survivors, and eventually the victims.
“It was evident that the roof or mezzanine above it had fallen in… I looked down and I was unfortunately standing on a body,” said Fire and Emergency station officer George Mihailoff.
The man has 50 previous convictions, including for serious violent assault and arson, as well as a long history of mental health issues.
He has paranoid schizophrenia and has been hospitalised eight times. He had escaped from a facility in Auckland and travelled to Wellington just weeks before the fire was lit.
While the trial has now concluded, another trial will likely begin next year, where four other people are facing charges of manslaughter in relation to the Loafers Lodge fire.
The charges came after an investigation into whether the state of the building and the management and compliance of its fire safety systems contributed to the fatal outcome.
