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“F***, I gotten hidings from that c*** many a times. That’s why I said, ‘I’m sick of it. It’s my birthday. I’m not getting a hiding today.’”
That is what Patuawa Mihaka Nathan explained was running through his head in the moments before stabbing his older brother to death with a butcher knife inside their South Auckland home two years ago, as his 19th birthday celebration deteriorated into shouting and chaos.
Jurors learned of the statement as the murder trial for Nathan, now 20, began today in the High Court at Auckland. Brother Challas Nathan, 30, had suffered two deep wounds: one to his chest that penetrated his lungs and stomach, and a second to his back, described by the Crown as “rapidly fatal”, that reached to his heart.
“F***, my brother,” Patuawa Nathan also said in the October 2022 police interview, after an officer informed him that Challas Nathan had just died from the wounds. “F***ing hell, my brother. F***ing told you, c***. F***ing told you I wasn’t joking.”
But defence lawyer Quentin Duff asked jurors during his opening statement today to hold off judgment about the police interviews. In them, he suggested, the officer took advantage of his client’s 77 IQ and low language skills to elicit misleadingly damning soundbites that don’t reflect “the full story of how two brothers who fundamentally loved one another” ended up in that situation.
He instead suggested the wounds were either not intended or in self-defence against a family member who had a fearsome reputation as a violent Crips gang member.
“A terrified ... Patuawa stood, hands trembling, holding a knife and yelling at his brother to get out of the house,” Duff said, describing Challas Nathan as having essentially impaled himself on the knife as it was held stationary by his brother - charging at it in a rage as if it was “the proverbial red rag” in a bullfighting ring.
The day of the incident had started jovial, with jurors shown a short video clip of the brothers sitting next to each other early that afternoon alongside friends and family - the small crowd smiling and laughing as the defendant was presented with a birthday cake.
Patuawa Mihaka Nathan, 20, appears in the High Court at Auckland for his murder trial. Photo / Jason Oxenham
But hours of drinking ensued, and by around 11pm a “trivial” argument had broken out between between Challas Nathan and their father about a cellphone that had gotten wet, Crown prosecutor Charlie Piho told jurors during his opening address. The defendant also got involved in the argument, at first trying to calm both men down before getting angry about how his brother was talking to his father, prosecutors said.
“Frustrated, Challas tried to remove himself from the situation,” Piho told jurors, describing the older brother as having gone to his room and closed his door. “Patuawa, though, he wasn’t done.”
Piho said the defendant followed his older brother, grabbing an approximately 30cm butcher knife with a 14.5cm blade from the kitchen along the way and yelling he would “f***ing kill him” before pounding on his brother’s bedroom door.
“Come out!” he is alleged to have yelled.
When Challas Nathan opened the bedroom door a scuffle ensued and he was stabbed the first time before the two ended up on the ground together, prosecutors allege. Family members responded to the ruckus to find the defendant “sitting on top of Challas and dominating him” as he stabbed the older brother a second time, Piho said during his address.
“F***, he’s stabbing me!” Challas Nathan allegedly yelled as family tried to intervene.
Later, when police arrived, an officer asked the defendant what happened and he said he had tried to call 111 to get his brother’s electronically monitored bail rescinded because he didn’t like the way his brother was acting up, prosecutors said.
“My brother called me a snitch and I didn’t like it,” he is alleged to have told the officer. “I did it. He came at me.”
Both brothers had moved into the Wattle Downs home about six months earlier, with Challas Nathan restricted to the home after having been released from a short jail stint.
Challas Nathan died in his Wattle Downs, South Auckland, home in October 2022.
Challas Nathan was described by his sister as having been respectful and good with her young children, according to prosecutors. She described the two brothers as having “got along like two peas in a pod”, but there had also been tension and fighting in the past, the Crown said.
The defence, however, painted a starkly different picture of both Challas Nathan and the defendant, describing the Crown case as “absolute nonsense”.
Duff said his client had simply wanted his older brother out of the house, and “he was foolish enough to think” the knife could serve as a “stop sign” - a warning that would make Challas Nathan comply.
“Challas’ membership in the Crips gang is an important lens through which he saw life,” Duff added. “It’s important for understanding that moment when he comes out of his bedroom. It was a filter through which he was looking at his little brother.”
When Patuawa Nathan threatened to send his brother back to jail, it prompted a rapid “downward spiral” as Challas Nathan lashed out, the defence lawyer said.
“Challas was somebody known for using anything he could get his hands on for fighting with a weapon,” Duff said. “He’d used weapons in the past on his brother.”
The trial, expected to last several weeks, continues before Justice Paul Radich and the jury.
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.
