The crown has rested its case in the murder trial of a 14-year-old accused of stabbing to death a homeless man outside a Flaxmere pub alongside four other youths.
Jurors were told today that Haami Hanara had been arrested nearly 300 kilometres away from the crime scene, on a rural property 40 minutes north of Whanganui.
Police have said he stabbed 40-year-old Kelly Donner in the neck several times. Mr Donner was found with critical injuries and died outside a Flaxmere pub in Hastings in March.
Officer Rhyan Honeyfield testified today that he located Hanara more than a month after the attack, in a shed on the rural property.
"Who, me?" he recalled the teen exclaiming when he was arrested.
The boy was then driven back to the Hastings Police station, he said.
Attorney Eric Forster later opened the defence’s case by telling the jury there is no denying his client was holding the knife when Mr Donner was stabbed. But the teen didn’t intend to kill him, he suggested.
He told the court the situation happened quickly.
“Just because Kelly Donner died does not mean that anyone intended for him to die,” he said.
The defendant is currently testifying on his own behalf - expected to be the only witness his attorney calls. He is flanked by a communications assistant to make sure he understands what is happening.
Yesterday, two witnesses, including a 13-year-old girl, said they saw Hanara with a knife after the attack.
"One of the boys had jumped on him and started punching him in the face and grabbed a knife out of nowhere and slit his throat," the girl said, reading from a statement she had previously given police.
But the girl also admitted under cross-examination that she wasn't sober at the time.
Prosecutors have also played CCTV footage of what they alleged was Hanara riding a bike while holding a bloodied knife immediately after the incident.
The stabbing itself was not caught on camera.
Hanara takes the stand
The 14-year-old accused of murdering a Flaxmere man has told the High Court in Napier he warned Kelly Donner to leave his group alone as he feared for what might happen to him.
Hanara has taken the stand to testify that he didn’t stab the Flaxmere man deliberately.
The group were using Mr Donners torch to look into a van because they planned to steal it from the Flax Tavern’s rear service area.
Hanara told the court that when Mr Donner asked for his torch back and the group refused, the man “got angry” and “started swearing” at them.
Hanara said he was worried “everyone was going to beat him up.”
“I told him he should go because it would end bad … because everyone was getting angry”.
Mr Donner told Hanara that he would leave once he got his torch back, but that’s when “bottles started coming out”.
Hanara is continuing to give evidence.
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