A killer who stabbed a friend to death after a night of drinking has been jailed for life - at least 10 years - and will be deported when he is released.
Sam Simi, 26, chased Olo Fiti for several kilometres after Mr Fiti got drunk and threatened to kill him in March last year. After finding Mr Fiti, Simi stabbed him fatally in the heart with a knife he had earlier taken from his kitchen and then stabbed him six more times in the face, back, torso and arm.
The following day he was arrested at Auckland airport as he was about to board a flight to Samoa.
He was charged with murder and on the first day of his trial after the jury had been selected and the Crown had made opening submissions, Simi changed his plea to guilty, was convicted and the trial was aborted.
At a sentencing hearing today in the High Court in Auckland crown prosecutor Kevin Glubb said the dead man's wife was pregnant with their fifth child when he was stabbed to death.
"The loss through this act of violence is immeasurable."
Mr Fiti's wife, Leinati Tuia-Lauvi, said in a letter read by Mr Glubb, she was facing sad and difficult times and her children were sad and still asked for their father.
"I am still upset about it and each time I speak about it I cry," Mr Glubb read as Mrs Tuia-Lauvi wiped tears from her eyes. For Simi, lawyer Panama Le'au'anae said it was a tragic and sad case but Simi was deeply remorseful for what happened.
The scene was "all too common featuring drugs and alcohol thrown in with a large dose of anger" and that was a volatile mixture.
He said Simi was an overstayer but had never been in trouble before. He would be deported to Samoa when he was released.
He showed insight to his offending with his guilty plea the day his murder trial started and two letters of apology, one of the Fiti family and one to the court.
"He acknowledges what he did and is extremely sorry for it," Mr Le'au'anae told the court.
During his sentencing remarks Justice Mark Cooper said Simi's response to the insults was a gross over-reaction.
Fiti may have been intoxicated but that did not excuse what Simi had done.
"But it may go some way to explaining this senseless killing."
He said he believed Simi was remorseful for the killing and he was satisfied a life term without a minimum non-parole period was the right sentence.
Under the law a life sentence means a mandatory minimum time in jail of 10 years.
