One of the attackers, also 15 at the time, is now facing trial for Kaea’s murder.<\/p>\n
After Kaea was attacked the teen recorded a 10-second video of his bloodied right hand and the 7 centimetre blade the teen stabbed him with.<\/p>\n
The Crown alleges the teen, who has significant intellectual impairments, is guilty of murder.<\/p>\n
It said Kaea was attacked because of a minor incident at a party a few weeks earlier, and because of the mistaken belief he was associated with Black Power, the High Court at Palmerston North heard on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
![\"Kaea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4K7F3DT_Kaea_porritt_school_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Kaea Karauria in his school uniform.<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
Dog is a term for Mongrel Mob gang members and the teen on trial, whose name is suppressed, has Mob insignia tattooed across his face. That wasn’t there in May 2025.<\/p>\n
The defence acknowledges the teen stabbed Kaea, but say he’s guilty of manslaughter.<\/p>\n
Attack over ‘trivial incident’ – Crown<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Steve Manning said Kaea’s night began when he attended the 16th birthday party of a rugby mate in Maraenui.<\/p>\n
![\"Crown](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JG3UVT_Trial_Stephen_Manning_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Stephen Manning says the teen is guilty of murder.<\/p>\n
JIMMY ELLINGHAM \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
Kaea, a sporty Napier Boys’ High School student, was dropped off and picked up by friends’ parents.<\/p>\n
“That should have been the end of the night. Kaea, however, wanted to return to the party later in the night because his girl friend was there,” Manning said.<\/p>\n
When he and a mate made it back, the party had been shut down not long after the teen on trial and his associates had shown up.<\/p>\n
A large group then decided to go to a party in Onekawa. Kaea and the teen may have made contact there, but otherwise were unknown to each other.<\/p>\n
When they arrived at the Dinwiddie Ave property, Kaea and a friend never went inside, instead sitting on a low concrete wall outside.<\/p>\n
One of the teen’s mates, however, saw red and decided to attack Kaea over a minor incident at a party a few weeks before, when there might have been accidental contact between Kaea and a girl.<\/p>\n
Manning said while the Crown didn’t need to prove motive, the attack began over something trivial.<\/p>\n
Running for his life<\/p>\n
![\"Kaea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4K7IQSI_Kaea_Karauria2_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Kaea Karauria died in Onekawa.<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
The Crown alleges five people attacked Kaea on Dinwiddie Ave and there the teen on trial stabbed him in the neck, severing an artery. The defence doesn’t dispute this.<\/p>\n
“No doubt fearing for his life Kaea then took off, ran up the street, over a fence, into a another property,” Manning said.<\/p>\n
As blood spurted from his wound Kaea cleared a couple more fences before ending up in the yard of a house on Alexander Ave, about 100 metres away from where he was stabbed.<\/p>\n
“Come here you f…… n….. Get him, dog. Get him, dog,” the Crown says the attackers yelled as they egged each other on. The n-word is a Mob name for Black Power members or associates.<\/p>\n
Manning said the group followed Kaea and found him lying on his back. He was set upon again, and the teen again stabbed him. The defence disputes this.<\/p>\n
The attackers returned to Dinwiddie Ave, where they boasted about what they’d done and the teen recorded his bloody video.<\/p>\n
“They’ve left Kaea ostensibly bleeding to death on the grass in front of this random house…,” Manning said.<\/p>\n
Kaea was found crying in pain by one of his friends. By the time emergency services turned up he was dead.<\/p>\n
Manning said it was agreed that as a 15-year-old, the teen would have had less self-control and would more impulsive and likely to act recklessly.<\/p>\n
On top of that, the teen’s IQ of 70 put him in the bottom 2 percent of the population and showed he had an even lower chance of controlling his behaviour or impulses.<\/p>\n
Death devastating, but not murder – defence<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Tim Braithwaite acknowledged the profound loss for Kaea’s family.<\/p>\n
![\"Defence](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4JG3OLV_Trial_Tim_Braithwaite_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Tim Braithwaite acknowledges Kaea Karauria’s death is devastating.<\/p>\n
JIMMY ELLINGHAM \/ RNZ<\/p>\n
“You’ll not hear me suggest that his death was anything other than devastating. You will not hear me suggest on behalf of [the teen] that he was not the one who caused this devastation.”<\/p>\n
However, Braithwaite said the Crown could not prove that the teen acted with murderous intent nor that he should have known his reckless actions could have caused death.<\/p>\n
Most people would understand that brandishing a knife could result in serious harm, but the teen did not due to his significant impairment.<\/p>\n
The teen didn’t view the world like an average 15-year-old and instead had the functioning age of a 7-year-old. He had prenatal alcohol exposure, which is caused by a mother drinking when pregnant.<\/p>\n
“His world is smaller, simpler and often confusing. [The teen] has a significantly reduced capacity in rapidly evolving situations,” Braithwaite said.<\/p>\n
“[The teen] did not intend death and he did not think that death was likely.”<\/p>\n
The defence disputed that Kaea was attacked twice and said evidence for the second attack, on Alexander Avenue, came from an unreliable witness.<\/p>\n
The attackers chased Kaea, but never saw him again after the brief initial encounter.<\/p>\n
Braithwaite said the teen was taking responsibility for stabbing Kaea. The defence lawyer said the jury should find the teen guilty of manslaughter.<\/p>\n
Two others have pleaded guilty to Kaea’s manslaughter, and two others faced charges of injuring with intent in the Youth Court.<\/p>\n
The trial is expected to last three weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“He’s dead. We stabbed him because we’re Bay dogs.” The Crown says those words rang out about 3am…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-642551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642551","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=642551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}