Tipene murder accused: I 'messed up'

Luke Tipene was a promising league player. Photo / Supplied

A teen accused of stabbing to death a promising rugby league player told a mate he had "caked it", moments after the stabbing, a court has heard.

The witness told the High Court at Auckland this morning it was slang for: "I messed up".

Vincent Angene Skeen, 18, is on trial before Justice Mary Peters, accused of the murder of 17-year-old Luke Tipene in the early hours of November 1, 2014.

The Crown alleges Skeen smashed a bottle and used a jagged shard to stab Tipene in the neck after the pair fought.

Witness Dominic Bellfield said he, the defendant and two friends had spent the evening driving round town in his new car.

When they arrived in Grey Lynn just after midnight, people were spilling out of an apartment block as a party had just ended.

Bellfield said he lost track of Skeen as a fight erupted on Great North Rd.

"People started running away so I assumed someone had got hurt. I ran as well and hopped into my car," the witness said.

While he did a U-turn to leave the scene Skeen jumped in too.

"He kept just saying: 's***, f***, all that stuff'," Bellfield told the jury.

When questioned by Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey, the witness said he heard Skeen say "I caked it".

Under cross-examination, he confirmed Skeen was not bragging.

He was "definitely upset, quite flustered as well", Bellfield said.

Partygoer Olivia Stewart said Skeen later got into her car, after she had heard the victim had a 10 per cent chance of living.

"Do you know what you've done?" she asked him.

"He didn't say anything. He was quite in shock, I could see he'd been crying."

Another teen, Carl Jota, who had spent the evening with the defendant, gave evidence yesterday that Tipene initially knocked Skeen over with a punch.

"I remember Vincent fell to the ground again and I looked away because there were people making real loud noise," Jota said.

"When I looked away, this is when Luke went past me and I could just see blood coming out of his neck. I could just hear a choking noise."

While the victim held his gaping wound, the witness told the jury Skeen announced what had happened.

"I just stabbed that c***."

Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey told the court at the outset there had been a street fight between respective friends of Skeen and Tipene which led to the pair squaring off.

Dickey told the jury a pathologist would give evidence that there were at least seven blows to the victim, one of which caused a 12cm wound, which stopped just short of Tipene's spine and pierced his jugular vein.

He died in hospital four hours later.

Defence counsel Lorraine Smith said her client, who was 16 at the time, may be guilty of manslaughter but lacked the requisite intent to be convicted of the more serious charge.

A jury last year was unable to reach a verdict and a retrial was ordered.

The trial continues.

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