‘Person of interest’ in Baby Ru death investigation jailed on raft of charges
Wednesday, 18 September 2024
A woman described as a “person of interest” in the investigation of the death of Hutt toddler Baby Ru has been sentenced to 18 months’ jail on unrelated charges.
The charges included four assaults. One of the victims was a journalist Morunga punched “multiple” times with a closed fist, while pulling her hair with the other hand, Judge Nicola Wills said on Wednesday.
The journalist, whose name was suppressed, dropped her two phones during the assault outside the Hutt Valley District Court on November 23. Morunga and an associate took the phones, and bought alcohol using a bankcard kept with one of the phones.
Another person allegedly spat in the journalist’s face.
At the court on Wednesday Judge Wills said many of the other charges involved stealing from stores, in one case Morunga walking out with her arms full of $1200 worth of clothes.
She was found guilty of one assault but pleaded guilty to 18 other charges.
No-one has been charged in relation to the death of Baby Ru.
“Baby Ru” was originally known as Ruthless-Empire but his name was later changed. He was almost two years old when he died on October 22 after being taken to hospital in an unresponsive state.
Three people were thought to be at the house at the time: Ru’s mother, Storm Angel Wall, Rosie Morunga and another person.
On Wednesday the judge said the assault on the journalist was the most serious charge, leaving the journalist nervous and stressed about attending court.
The judge said the victim and other journalists had to be able to attend court without fear of being assaulted.
In June 2022 an elderly woman had parked in a shared driveway outside Morunga’s house, and Morunga stood over her, struck her in the face and spat at her.
The woman was left rattled and bruised, the judge said.
In May 2023 Morunga was at a supermarket in Paraparaumu when she filled a trolley with $778 worth of groceries. Morunga ran towards the doors and rammed the trolley into the doors when they failed to open.
The glass smashed and a door was knocked from its rail. She rammed it again and a checkout supervisor grabbed the trolley.
Morunga pushed her open hand into the supervisor’s face to make her let go of the trolley but the supervisor held on and Morunga slipped between the broken doors, leaving the trolley behind.
In August 2023 she shoulder-barged a staff member at a department store when they tried to recover menswear that she was stealing.
The staff member was knocked to the ground and Morunga left with the clothes in her arms.
In August 2023 in Wellington she took 60 health and beauty products and threatened a store worker who tried to talk to her.
Judge Wills said she gave Morunga credit for pleading guilty, and other factors including having a diagnosis of foetal alcohol syndrome which could cause violence and aggression.
The judge imposed special release conditions that included not associating without permission with a man who had been with her at court. As she was led from the court she had called out to him, “I love you, I’m going to jail for 18 months.”
However, it’s not clear how long Morunga would be in jail. She has already spent time in custody on remand and that would be taken into account when calculating her release date.
Other conditions of her release were to have a probation officer’s permission to go to central Lower Hutt and to be electronically monitored to check compliance with conditions about where she could not go.
She was also to be assessed and treated for drug and alcohol issues and psychologically.
However, the judge said that Morunga had not co-operated in the writing of pre-sentence reports for the court and had shown no interest in understanding the reasons for her offending.