Prison murder trial: All cleared of murder, but first punch-thrower guilty of manslaughter

Lopeti Telefoni threw the first punch at Lee and was found guilty of manslaughter. Photo / Michael Craig

All the men on trial for a brutal jailhouse stabbing and stomping death have been cleared of murder but one has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Paul Simon Tuliloa, Riki Wiremu Ngamoki and Lopeti Telefoni all pleaded not guilty to the murder of inmate Blake John Lee at Auckland Prison in Paremoremo.

Senior Crips gang member Siuaki Lisiate had already pleaded guilty to murder. Lee was killed on March 5 last year.

Riki Wiremu Ngamoki fought with a Mongrel Mob member and his lawyer said this was a simultaneous but separate conflict to the attack on Lee. Photo / Michael Craig

Jurors at the High Court in Auckland retired to consider their verdicts on Monday.

This afternoon, the first verdict was returned shortly after 3.30pm.

Telefoni was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter and remanded in custody to August 13 for sentencing.

Ngamoki was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter.

Tuliloa was also found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter.

Guards flank Paul Simon Tuliloa, Lopeti Telefoni, and Riki Wiremu Ngamoki in the High Court. Photo / Michael Craig

The men on trial had pleaded guilty to injuring with intent.

Defence lawyers argued there was no conspiracy between the three men on trial, and no opportunity for them to form a coherent plan.

The Crown argued some fighting involved attempts to neutralise an ally of Lee's and thereby render Lee helpless during Lisiate's shanking rampage.

Telefoni threw the first punch at Lee but CCTV footage played to jurors showed Lisiate carried out most of the violence.

He stabbed Lee with a shank he'd hidden in his beanie, and leapt into the air multiple times before stomping him.

Jurors heard Lee and Cesar Su'a, the other inmate who was attacked, were affiliated with the Mongrel Mob.

Telefoni identified with the Crips, and Ngamoki and Tuliloa were with the Killer Beez.

Lisiate, an inmate who previously attacked notorious inmate Graeme Burton, had name suppression during the trial but that lapsed today.

Lee, 25, had a history of violence and was jailed in March 2019 after holding his partner captive for several hours and beating her.

All the men were in the country's only maximum-security prison, and murder trial defence lawyers at various times questioned how the shank could have been smuggled in.

The jury was shown uncensored footage of the stabbing and bashing attack which was so horrific, Justin Simon Moore asked jurors if they wanted to take a break after viewing it.

They did.

The footage also showed prison staff running towards the yard, then watching the violence for about 80 seconds before entering.

Some of the defence lawyers questioned why eight inmates were in the yard at the same time, and suggested the Department of Corrections was under-resourced.

The trial heard of brutal prison conditions, with Telefoni claiming he'd seen stompings in jail before.

Tuliloa said he was cuffed into a steel box and transported from Spring Hill the same day Lee was murdered.