Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
A woman who allowed her vulnerable husband to die has failed to overturn her conviction in the Court of Appeals.
Last year, Malia Li was sentenced to five years in prison after her husband, Lanitola Epenisa, developed sepsis and died in a filthy room that contained maggots, mice and urine.
Li was charged with manslaughter for failing to provide Epenisa with the necessities of life, a major departure from the standard of care expected of a reasonable person with her responsibilities.
Witnesses who had visited Epenisa described a "really disgusting smell," like a "dead animal". He had suffered multiple strokes in the years before his death in 2016, had serious diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney failure.
The couple had refused assistance from support workers, with Epenisa requesting that his carer not be a stranger. Li accepted responsibility for his care.
Visitors remembered Epenisa looking skinny and smelling of urine, always sat in a La-Z-Boy chair that he rarely left. On multiple occasions, Epenisa's family had found him home alone, was not fed and looking malnourished.
He had been visited by an aunt and cousin the day before he died, who told the courtroom that the carpet around his chair was soaked. Epenisa's aunt offered to bathe him, but Li had refused - asking her to come back the next day.
Epenisa passed away in the early hours of the next morning, after his severe bedsores became rapidly infected.
A police investigation found a black plastic bag that contained maggot-infested clothing, and when they moved his La-Z-Boy chair a mouse ran out into the room.
The jury concluded that Li had become aware of the bedsores with enough time to prevent infection, but chose not to do so. Li had also filed an appeal against her sentence, but it was abandoned.