A Mongrel Mob "prospect" accused of fatally stabbing a Central Hawke's Bay contractor in the chest and back during a fight outside a rural tavern said he panicked because he thought the man was going to shoot him.
Hulio Henry Ataria, 23, is on trial in the High Court at Napier before Justice Alan Mackenzie for the murder of Mark Allan McCutcheon at Ongaonga, west of Waipawa, on January 23 last year.
Mr McCutcheon was stabbed twice in the chest and once in the back but drove away from the tavern. He was found dead in his utility the following morning.
Mr McCutcheon had threatened to get his rifle if Ataria and two associates did not leave the tavern carpark where one of them, a Mongrel Mob member, whose name is suppressed, had been assaulting his girlfriend.
Ataria denied hearing the mob member tell him to "get" Mr McCutcheon and said he had run across the road when he saw Mr McCutcheon taking a gun case from his ute.
He told the court Mr McCutcheon had threatened to shoot them and he wanted to get the weapon off him.
Mr McCutcheon struck Ataria with the gun case before Ataria managed to get his left hand on the case. He said Mr McCutcheon had held him down by the head and was "getting the better of me".
He took his knife from its pouch on his belt and thrust it at Mr McCutcheon.
Ataria said he was trying to jab the other man in the buttocks or back of his leg and did not realise his blows had gone into Mr McCutcheon's chest and back.
"I wasn't sure I had got him."
Questioned by his counsel, Paul Mabey, the accused said he stabbed Mr McCutcheon because he thought Mr McCutcheon would shoot him and his two associates, if he had been able to get the gun out of the case.
Earlier he told the court he had bought the knife the previous day because he and a cousin planned to steal and kill some sheep at Takapau that night.
His plans changed when he went to the Sandford Arms Tavern at Ongaonga with a mate called Bruiser and the mob member.
He admitted throwing the knife and the pouch out of the car after the confrontation at the tavern, but said he did it because a police car had slowed as it passed their car and he wanted to get rid of the weapon and some cannabis.
Cross-examined by crown prosecutor Clayton Walker, the accused said he did not know why he hadn't punched Mr McCutcheon instead of using his knife.
"I didn't know what else to do. I was just panicking," he said.
The week-long trial is expected to end with the judge's summing up on Tuesday.
