A JURY has retired to begin determining the fate of Shane Holmes, accused of the murder of Chad Hadden, who died five months after he was punched near Queens Wharf Hotel in Newcastle.
Mr Holmes, 45, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but not guilty to murder with Mr Holmes intent at the time he threw the fatal punch the central issue during his two-week trial in Newcastle Supreme Court.
The prosecution case is that an angry Mr Holmes assaulted Mr Hadden with intent to cause him really serious bodily injury to teach him a lesson.
While Public Defender Peter Krisenthal, for Mr Holmes, has submitted that the evidence in the trial showed Mr Holmes was not angry at the time he threw the punch and did not have the requisite intent. Mr Hadden died in June, 2018, five months after Mr Holmes punched him near Queens Wharf Hotel in Newcastle following an afternoon of drinking beer together on January 14.
The pair had been best mates decades earlier and had recently reconnected.
