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Photo: Supplied / Ministry of Justice

The defence counsel for the older of two Whangārei brothers accused of murder says his client accepts committing manslaughter, but not murder.

The siblings are accused of deliberately killing 23-year-old Haze Peihopa – through the older brother stabbing the victim in the chest as the brother flanked him.

After the fatal stabbing and CBD street fight, Peihopa died in the early hours of 13 June 2021 at Whangārei Hospital.

Closing arguments were heard this afternoon and the final witnesses were called yesterday.

The older sibling’s counsel, Steven Lack, told the jury today, his client accepted killing Peihopa in a case of manslaughter, but there was “no evidence” he intended to kill, when he began swiping a knife at the victim in the clash.

The scene was “chaotic” and the stabbing was in a “split second”, he said.

“It wasn’t a well thought out or considered blow … he was being scragged and thrown onto the road by Mr Peihopa.”

Lack said his client had been “rattled or stunned by the punches that he’d received from Mr Peihopa and in the [CCTV] footage, you can see that his first instinct is to swing the knife from top to bottom – so in a chopping-like motion – not to stab, not to thrust it outwards”.

Lack said there was no evidence Peihopa and his client were associated before the night, or that his client had a motive to kill, but he said his client was “grossly intoxicated” at the time, based on police observations.

“Manslaughter, that is what he is guilty of.”

The younger brother’s defence counsel, Ron Mansfield KC, said his client never used the knife, and was simply near his brother out of loyalty, which was a “quantum leap” from murder.

“Mr Peihopa charged at his brother. What brother, what little brother in those circumstances, wouldn’t seek to help out their older brother?”

He referred to what police recalled the older brother saying to his younger sibling, when the pair were arrested outside public toilets they locked themselves in.

“The older brother, realising now that something serious had happened and that he had dragged his brother into it, because they were brothers, was apologising.

“And you know, as well as everyone in this courtroom knows, there would be no ‘sorry bro’ if this was a joint or group enterprise. ‘Sorry, bro’ meant ‘I’m sorry that you’ve been dragged into this, I’m sorry because you’re not involved’.”

Mansfield said his client had been “drinking alcohol, something like six-to-eight cans of ready-mix vodka that we [society members] think is a good idea to sell in lolly-type flavours”.

“And he had been using nangs, he was intoxicated. Not to the point where he’s staggering around, falling over, but to the point where anyone his age, lacking experience, is going to be acting a bit like an idiot, engaging in this street fight.”

Earlier in the day, the jury heard that Mansfield’s client had no criminal history.

In the Crown’s closing arguments, prosecutor Mike Smith said, “stabbing someone in that left upper chest area with that weapon [knife], in the exhibit, to an extent that you fracture the ribs and pierce the body all the way through to the backbone, shows it is a deliberate act”.

He referred to video evidence with audio recordings of the older brother.

“You can hear [him] call for the blade,” Smith said, and argued the younger sibling knew his elder had a knife, because “it was out for all to see”.

He said the younger brother was “corralling” Peihopa as his older brother brandished the knife.

“Assisting, aiding whatever description you choose, he’s helping his brother,” Smith said.

“As his brother’s approached with the knife, [he’s] joined with him, joined with him in such a way that by coming from the side, endeavours to distract and also assault [Mr Peihopa] at the same time.”

Both defence teams chose not to give, nor call evidence, this week.

Justice Brewer will summarise the case to the jury tomorrow morning.