Man admitted murder to doubting friends, court told

Tijay Witoko told friends he stabbed Hemi Hohepa but they didn't believe him, a High Court jury has been told.

The 21-year-old best friend of Mr Hohepa is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua for his murder.

Four people, including three of Witoko's female friends, gave evidence on the second day of the trial yesterday.

Mr Hohepa's body was found on October 20 near Whakarewarewa forest with a single stab wound in the abdomen. He was last seen in the early hours of October 18, when Witoko picked him up from his brother's flat in Rotorua.

A 15-year-old, whose name was suppressed, told the jury yesterday that late on October 17 she was at a friend's house drinking when Witoko and three friends arrived.

After a few drinks, Witoko and his friends left and two days later, late on the evening of Friday, October 19, Witoko returned to the address, where the teenager and her friend were watching television.

Witoko told them Mr Hohepa was dead. She wept as crown prosecutor Shane Walsh asked what he had said.

"Tijay asked if we had read the paper. He said Hemi was dead. He said he had killed him," she told the court.

"I didn't believe him when he said it. At first I freaked out because he was drunk. He never said it like he meant it."

The next day she heard Mr Hohepa's body had been found.

She told the court she confronted Witoko at Mr Hohepa's funeral.

"I was quite upset ... I asked him if what he said was true. He said no."

During cross-examination of the girl, Witoko's lawyer, Jonathon Temm, asked if she was sure about what she heard his client say. She said she was.

"He said that he only said it because he was protecting someone he loved. I believed him."

In her evidence, Ngahuia Wineera, from Rotorua, confirmed Witoko had visited her home the night the teenager had spoken of. But Ms Wineera said Witoko hadn't told her he had killed his friend.

"He told me Hemi had just been stabbed ... He didn't say who did it. I didn't really believe him at first."

Although he smelt of alcohol, he was not drunk, she said.

On the Sunday she heard Mr Hohepa was dead.

During cross-examination, she said Witoko and Mr Hohepa were close. "They were brothers like no other."

Another friend of Witoko's, Trevena Tihi, who gave a statement to police saying he told her he had stabbed his friend, told the court yesterday she couldn't remember anything.

Ms Tihi said she had a drinking and methamphetamine problem at the time of Mr Hohepa's death.

When asked by Mr Walsh if police had "dreamed up" her statement, she replied "yeah, probably".

- NZPA