KEY POINTS:
A Manurewa man accused of a midnight killing on a South Auckland street told police he was only trying to defend his younger brothers.
Police alleged Jio-Pene Sauaki, 20, was walking along Mahia Rd, Manurewa, on the night of July 8 when he got into a fight with Kelly Lawrence, who had been at a party on nearby Nield Rd.
In the course of the dispute, police say, Sauaki took a hunting-style knife from his jacket pocket and stabbed Mr Lawrence once in the left side of his chest.
The 18-year-old died at the scene a short time later.
It is alleged Sauaki fled the scene with his brothers, taking the knife with him but later discarding it.
In a police video-interview transcript released to the Herald following a Manukau District Court depositions hearing this week, Sauaki allegedly admitted to the killing, saying he had obtained the knife from a friend a few days earlier.
Before the fight, he had used the knife to whittle branches and cut fruit and meat, he said.
Sauaki told police that on the night of the killing, he was walking home to Jellicoe Rd when he and his two brothers, one of whom was 14, encountered a group he estimated at about 30 fighting on Mahia Rd.
One of the brawlers allegedly accosted Sauaki's 14-year-old brother and accused him of "standing on his jersey, or something".
Sauaki used a false name to a police officer during much of the three-hour interview, and told the detective he had taken the knife a few days earlier from "some other dude in Otahuhu".
He said he used the knife after Mr Lawrence threw a punch as he tried to get his brothers out of harm's way.
"I dodged it [the punch] and pulled out the knife and just turned around. He tried to keep on swinging at me, so I just stabbed him."
Sauaki said he used the knife to protect his brothers, "cos there was other guys running up to me as well".
"It was just a fast reaction cos I saw other guys coming at me as well, so it was just fast in and out, and grabbed my brothers and ran."
Sauaki appeared at a depositions hearing in Manukau District Court this week where his lawyer, Lorraine Smith, conceded he had a prima facie case to answer. He was remanded in custody to a High Court call-over in February.
