The Crown case against Christopher Allan Heenan, accused of murder, closed in the High Court at Rotorua today, the jury reminded how another man had been invoking the gods before he was stabbed to death.
Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch said Heenan had told his son it was "that bloody nigger conjuring up the gods" that led to the events that unfolded at his home more than three years ago.
Heenan, an artist, carver and tattooist, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Raukawa Newton in October 2007.
The jury has heard that Heenan had been stabbed too but Mr Pilditch said it was the Crown's contention his wounds were self-inflicted, that no third party had been involved
He said the case were straightforward - Heenan had taken a knife and stabbed Mr Newton in the shoulder and neck because he intended to kill him.
He dismissed the possibility Heenan had acted in self defence.
Although Mr Newton had mental health issues in the past he had never been threatening, violent or aggressive "not the sort of person who would pick up a knife and use it in some sort of murderous rage."
There was no evidence of a knife fight between the two men.
In evidence against his father, Zeek Heenan had said some time after Mr Newton's murder his father told him that he had been responsible for it.
He had then inflicted his own stab wounds to create a blood trail. These were flesh wounds that had not penetrated, Mr Pilditch said.
"It is a most difficult thing for a son in a trial such as this to tell the truth about his father," he told the jury.
All evidence pointed squarely to the accused's guilt.
