The trial of a man accused of murdering a promising 17-year-old Taranaki rugby league player has heard the men were would-be sheep rustlers who fell out ahead of the fatal attack.
Rakai Jacob Thompson, 26, appeared in the High Court at New Plymouth charged with the murder of Te Omeka Pairama Akariri-Buckley in Waitara on July 30 last year.
Before proceedings got under way, an associate of the Akariri-Buckley family performed a karakia in front of a public gallery filled with supporters of both men.
Thompson - who entered court on crutches, wearing sweat pants and a black T-shirt - sat with this head bowed through most of the proceedings.
Crown prosecutor Jacob Bourke told the jury on the night of July 30 the men had been involved in an almost comical sheep rustling mission with Te Omeka's older brother Don and another man.
Don was like a brother to Thompson, said Bourke.
After failing to rustle sheep at two locations and arguing about the use of a light bar on the ute they were using, the men returned to Akariri-Buckley's home in Bell Block where Thompson became increasingly agitated.
After further arguments about mislaid car keys, Thompson returned home to Strange St in Waitara.
Bourke said Thompson was still upset when he removed a motorbike - owned by the Akariri-Buckleys - from his garage, and parked it on the driveway.
Bourke said when the brothers arrived, Te Omeka went to get a helmet from the garage, so he could ride the bike home.
Thompson - armed with a boning knife - told Te Omeka not to enter the garage.
The men argued and Te Omeka Akariri-Buckley "got in Thompson's face" before they got into a scuffle.
During the scuffle the teenager was stabbed twice. Once in the left side of his chest - which penetrated his heart - and another blow in his side which pierced his left kidney.
Te Omeka ran a short distance, before collapsing alongside the ute.
Thompson and Don Akariri-Buckley laid Te Omeka out together and tried to staunch the bleeding while another person called 111.
Emergency services were called to the property on Strange St about 12.45am.
Bourke said Thompson told police who arrived at the scene he had stabbed Te Omeka Akariri-Buckley, but it was in self-defence.
The teenager was taken to hospital in a critical condition, but died from his injuries.
Bourke said, in a later interview with a detective, Thompson said he did not mean to stab Te Omeka, and had done so accidentally when he pushed him away after being rushed by the brothers, only later to say he had stabbed him intentionally.
Thompson said he only had the knife because he had been preparing food.
Defence counsel Nathan Bourke told the jury Te Omeka Akariri-Buckley's death was a tragedy, but not a murder because Thompson did not want him to die.
He said Te Omeka was like a little brother to Thompson and, as a young father who had lost his own brother in an accident, there was no way he meant to kill the teenager.
This was not a whodunnit, Bourke told the jury, as the facts were not in dispute and Thompson did not deny stabbing Te Omeka.
Bourke said Thompson got sick of the arguing, being picked on and wanted to make a clean break with the Akariri-Buckley brothers and his way of doing that was returning the motorbike.
Thompson was the Akariri-Buckley's "punching bag", "whipping boy" their "little bitch", he said, and Thompson had the knife because he feared what the brothers might do to him when they arrived to get the motorbike.
Bourke said what happened was that Thompson was assaulted after he yelled at Te Omeka not to go into the shed.
"He was being punched repeatedly in the head, he was knocked to the ground, and in the brief few seconds that followed, he reacted and he stabbed Te Omeka.
"We don't shy away from this. We embrace it. It shows this for what it is. Mere seconds, Rakai acted on instinct and in fear ... it wasn't premeditated, it wasn't calculated. He acted on instinct."
Bourke said what Thompson did immediately afterwards was telling. He tried to help Te Omeka, stem the blood flow and offered to drive him to hospital.
His actions did not equate to murderous intent, the defence counsellor said.
The trial before Justice Jason McHerron and a jury of eight women and four men has been set down for two weeks.
The prosecution intends to call 19 witnesses.
