Life sentence for murder of father

File photo / NZ Herald

A second brother in a Hawkes Bay family to have killed someone with a knife has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his father.

Johnathon Walter Middleton, 32, killed his father Walter William Middleton, 61, at a Havelock North address on November 9 last year.

He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 11 years today in the High Court at Napier after earlier pleading guilty.

Walter Middleton had worked as an engineering assistant at Whakatu Coldstores. His boss, Ross Tougher, said his former employee was "big hearted".

"He was the type of guy who if he had 100 jobs on and you asked him to do one more, he'd do it," Mr Tougher said. "He was really well respected and well liked here."

It's understood Mr Middleton had taken on many foster children during his life.

Johnathon Middleton is the second brother in the family to be jailed for a fatal stabbing after his brother Aaron Justin Middleton was sentenced to eight years' jail for killing his 16-year-old girlfriend Karen Nant more than a decade ago.

Aaron Middleton had denied stabbing her in an argument over dinner, claiming the fatal wound to her throat was caused when he flicked a vegetable knife in her direction without expecting such consequences.

A jury found him guilty of manslaughter in Ms Nant's death, which happened in a Hastings flat on September 27, 2001.