Tutai responded to the accusation by stabbing her repeatedly with a knife he had retrieved from the kitchen in the Te Atatū Peninsula home where they were both staying with her family. The 27-year-old died that same day as paramedics rushed her to the hospital.
Details of the vicious attack, which took place one year ago this month, have been disclosed for the first time following the 30-year-old defendant’s guilty plea to murder yesterday.
Tutai had been set to go to trial next month in the High Court at Auckland. Justice Mathew Downs instead remanded him back in custody to await sentencing in November. Hai’s extended family quietly filled the courtroom gallery as the brief hearing took place.
Emergency responders rushed to the West Auckland home around 7.15am last September 11 to find the mother in critical condition. Tutai still had the knife in his hand.
“I already know what I did was wrong,” he told police at the scene.
Jaykob Tutai appears in the High Court at Auckland, charged with the murder of ex-partner Nazia Hai. Photo / Michael Craig
Tutai later admitted while in custody to having been the one who stabbed his ex but declined to make a formal statement, according to the agreed summary of facts for the case.
The two had first started dating in 2012 but were separated and sleeping in different bedrooms at the time of the stabbing.
“Towards the end of the [birthday] evening, there were indications of conflict between the pair based on mistrust of Ms Hai by Mr Tutai,” court documents state.
The next day, at around 6.45am, Hai asked about the missing Nintendo console, which triggered “a short verbal argument” followed by the knife attack.
A pathologist would later count seven deep stab wounds, including ones to her neck and chest that would have been fatal and a wound to her arm described as “potentially fatal”. She also suffered a deep stab wound to her back and four shallower wounds.
Nazia Hai, 27, died on September 11, 2023, after she was stabbed multiple times at a Te Atatū Peninsula home. Ex-partner Jaykob Tutai pleaded guilty to her murder a year later.
Two children and the victim’s mother were also at the home as the stab wounds were inflicted.
“Upon hearing her daughter’s scream, Ms Hai’s mother ran towards her, and as she did, she observed Mr Tutai remove the knife from her body,” court documents state. “She (mother) then tried to drag her daughter away in an attempt to help her.
“At this point Mr Tutai has phoned the Police Communication Centre advising the call taker that he had stabbed his ex-partner and that she was dying.”
When police arrived, they told Tutai multiple times to drop the knife and come out peacefully, but he refused, the summary of facts states.
Police and paramedics arrived at a Te Atatū Peninsula home in West Auckland last September to find Nazia Hai critically injured with multiple stab wounds.
“Police had to use force to detain and arrest him,” authorities said.
Hai, known by the nickname Naz, devoted her life to her son and had recently obtained her real estate licence in a step towards building a bright future with him, friends and family previously told the Herald.
“Naz had a bright future ahead of her,” sister Shazia Peri said. “She was doing all this for her baby boy. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for him. He was her world.”
The Epsom Girls’ Grammar alumnus loved netball, cooking and visiting family in the Far North.
“She was selfless, carefree, vibrant, always wanted to make everyone happy – just an all-round beautiful soul in and out,” her sister said. “She will be missed by so many people.”
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
