Justice Faire convicted Harris and remanded him in custody for sentencing on July 22. He also ordered a pre-sentence report.
Harris was given a mandatory three strikes warning, meaning if he is convicted of a qualifying offence in the future he will serve the full sentence, without parole, unless the court considered that that would be manifestly unjust.
The Crown case was that Harris stabbed Mr Keogh while trying to wrench a slug gun the victim had been using to shoot possums from his grasp. The prosecution alleged that he had tried to conceal his crime by removing a number of firearms from a safe and transferring them to a shed, ripping out CCTV recording equipment and hiding it in grass under an animal shelter, and changing the clothes he had been wearing.
Mr Keogh was driven to Kaitaia Hospital, unconscious and unresponsive, and died there later that evening. The jury had heard that the knife, which was never found, had travelled 10-15cm into his body and through his heart.