The family of a 14-year-old found guilty of murdering a Hawke's Bay man after an argument over a torch say he is "a sweet kid".
Haami Hanara, who has been on trial in the Napier High Court, was today charged with the murder of 40-year-old Kelly Donner after he was found with critical injuries outside a Flaxmere pub in March this year.
A jury of five men and seven women found Hanara guilty of stabbing the Flaxmere rough sleeper four times, twice in his neck, severing his carotid artery which led him to bleed to death.
They deliberated for three-and-a-half hours before handing down the guilty verdict.
A large contingent of Hanara's family watched the trial, including his grandfather, who flew over from Australia. A woman cried after the verdict was delivered.
Speaking outside court, Hanara's uncle, Tony Ratahi, said he wasn't overwhelmed by the verdict.
"It's a waste to see what happened to him because that's his whole future ahead of him and that's now been jeopardised," Mr Ratahi said.
A female family member who doesn't wish to be named said that Hanara is "a sweet kid".
Members of Kelly Donner's family were also in attendance and remained unmoved by the verdict.
Mr Donner's cousin, Daymien Donner, told reporters after the verdict that he was a kind man.
"At the end of the day, whatever the sentence, nothing can bring our cousin back," he said.
The incident occurred after Hanara and a group of youths were out on a Sunday night wanting to rob a liquor store.
The group met Mr Donner, a known rough sleeper, in a service area behind the local pub, who they borrowed a torch from to try and steal a van.
When Mr Donner asked for his torch back, a fight broke out and spilled out into a grassed area outside the tavern. Bottles and concrete were thrown by each party and Donner was hit with a bicycle.
CCTV footage shown to the court showed Hanara with a knife in his hand before chasing after Mr Donner out of shot. The teenager then returns into frame with the knife covered in blood.
Multiple teenagers gave evidence stating that they saw Hanara with the knife that night. With one telling the court she saw Hanara punching Mr Donner in the neck and shoulder area and afterwards said, "I stabbed him – run".
Hanara testified himself in the trial and told the court he didn't remember how he got Mr Donner's blood on the knife.
Defence lawyer Eric Forster didn't deny Hanara had the knife at the time Mr Donner got stabbed, but that he didn't do it deliberately.
Crown Prosecutor Steve Manning told the jury in his closing argument it's "clearly not credible" that the teenager doesn't remember what happened.
He is the only one with a knife and has admitted to only being in his hands. Despite the lack of CCTV images of the incident, there are three people who say they saw the defendant attack Mr Donner.
Defence lawyer Forster argued the 33 seconds where Haami cannot be seen in the CCTV is "asking you to fill in the gaps" and said by the Crown asking, that meant "you can't record a verdict of guilty beyond reasonable doubt".
He also told the jury the witnesses weren't credible that night as they gave conflicting reports of what happened and one was under the influence of cannabis.
Four others who were involved in the attack have been dealt with by the youth court.
Hanara will be sentenced in February.
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