{"id":559303,"date":"2026-08-05T02:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/559303\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T02:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:08:10","slug":"tailasa-pongia-pleads-guilty-to-stabbing-murder-of-greig-temarama-abela-in-otara-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/559303\/","title":{"rendered":"Tailasa Pongia pleads guilty to stabbing murder of Greig Temarama-Abela in \u014ctara, Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAt an unknown point, Mr Pongia armed himself with a knife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victim Greig Kelvin Temarama-Abela, also 19, was turned away from Pongia when the defendant stabbed him in the upper back. <\/p>\n

The 8.5cm deep wound entered through Temarama-Abela\u2019s ribs and fatally cut a small internal artery, resulting in a fatal haemorrhage, a pathologist would later determine. A half-centimetre incision was also found on his upper arm. <\/p>\n

A friend of Temarama-Abela\u2019s, also 19, punched the defendant after witnessing the stabbing. <\/p>\n

\"TailasaTailasa Pongia appears in the High Court at Auckland in October 2025, after he was charged with the murder of 19-year-old Greig Kelvin Temarama-Abela during an August 2025 street fight. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

The defendant dropped to his knees as a result of the blow but then stood up and adopted a boxing stance as he faced off with the puncher. He then lunged forward and stabbed the man in the abdomen. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe fighting continued intermittently, and both groups moved towards the intersection of Bairds Road and Wymondley Road,\u201d court documents state. \u201cHowever, the fighting eventually petered off, and the groups began to disperse.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy this point, Mr Temarama-Abela sat down at the intersection of Wymondley Road and Laxon Avenue. He quickly lost consciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice investigate after Greig Temarama-Abela died following a fight on Wymondley Rd in Otara last year. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

He was pronounced dead a short time later, after emergency responders rushed him to Middlemore Hospital. <\/p>\n

Pongia initially told police he had been asleep and knew nothing of the confrontation. He had been set to go to trial in October. Instead, he\u2019ll now face sentencing in October.<\/p>\n

He faces up to 14 years\u2019 imprisonment for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. <\/p>\n

Murder usually carries a mandatory life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years. However, in some cases judges have found such a sentence to be manifestly unjust when a defendant\u2019s youth has been taken into consideration. <\/p>\n

Craig Kapitan<\/a> is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAt an unknown point, Mr Pongia armed himself with a knife.\u201d Victim Greig Kelvin Temarama-Abela, also 19, was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[275150,51,1863,11783,275149,275147,3368,78,61094,4275,111,43,139,69,1118,3373,3367,275146,69687,15163,275145,33913,4054,275148,107,61,13797,16963],"class_list":["post-559303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-adversary","tag-auckland","tag-back","tag-brought","tag-fistfight","tag-greig","tag-guilty","tag-in","tag-knife","tag-murder","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-pleaded","tag-pleads","tag-pongia","tag-stab","tag-stabbing","tag-tailasa","tag-tara","tag-teenager","tag-temaramaabela","tag-then","tag-to","tag-used","tag-weapon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}