Less than two hours after his 19th birthday celebration ended abruptly with the stabbing of his older brother, Patuawa Nathan sat in a South Auckland police station – unaware that the wounds were fatal – and opened up to a detective about his immediate regrets.
“It was only over petty shit, just over a wet phone which caused the f***ing, which caused that,” he said of the argument that preceded 30-year-old Challas Nathan’s knife wounds.
“F***ing, that was a stupid move,” he added a short time later of picking up a butcher’s knife from the kitchen before following his brother to his bedroom and pounding on his closed door to resume the argument. “At the time, f***, what was going through my head, I didn’t even ... I wasn’t caring about anything. I didn’t give a f***.”
Jurors in the High Court at Auckland listened to the police interview today as prosecutors called their final witnesses in Patuawa Nathan’s murder trial, now in its second week of testimony.
The defence suggested in a brief opening statement last week that the stabbing was either accidental or in self-defence from Challas Nathan, a Crips gang member who had recently been released from prison and was described by his younger brother as a “tough c***” who never lost a fight. Father and son legal team Quentin and Gowan Duff will have an opportunity to start calling defence witnesses tomorrow.
But prosecutors ‘Aminiasi Kefu and Charlie Piho have alleged the fatal October 2022 confrontation at the brothers’ Wattle Downs home went well beyond an accident, and they referred to the defendant’s two police interviews as confirmation.
The brothers’ extended family had been celebrating Patuawa Nathan’s birthday with cake and plenty of alcohol since early that afternoon, witnesses have said. The first signs of discord occurred around 11pm, when an argument broke out among the brothers and their father over who was responsible for the father’s cellphone being wet.
Patuawa Nathan said he didn’t like the way his brother was disrespecting their father, so he told his brother he wanted him out of the house. To show that he was serious, he tried to call 111 to have Challas Nathan’s electronically monitored bail rescinded, he told police.
“And then yeah, I grabbed the knife off the side of the bench,” he explained as he sat barefoot at a small circular interview room table at Manukau Police Station just after 1am. “But f***, it wasn’t intentional like I wanted to do it.
“... Because, f***, he doesn’t give up, that’s what made him just launch at me, and when he launched at me I already had the knife there, which gave him what he has now. F***, and I just let go ... because I seen all the blood. F***, I knew I f***ed up.”
Authorities have said Challas Nathan suffered two deep wounds: one to his chest that penetrated his lungs and stomach and a second to his back, described by the Crown as “rapidly fatal”, which reached to his heart.
“Why did you grab the knife?” asked Detective Constable Hola Taani, who rewatched the interview today alongside jurors via an audio-visual feed from Australia’s Northern Territory, where he now serves.
“F***, because I didn’t wanna ... to be honest, yeah, I didn’t wanna f***ing get dropped on the ground,” Patuawa Nathan responded. “F***, I knew I was gonna get a hiding. F***, I’d gotten a hiding from that c*** many a times. That’s why I said, ‘I’m sick of it. It’s my 19th birthday. I’m not f***ing getting a hiding today.’”
The defendant lamented a few moments later: “I should of just taken it on the chin and took what I was gonna get ... F***, we were having a good night, drinking away.”
He occasionally mentioned how tired he was and asked for updates on his brother as he responded quietly to police questions in a profanity-laden but not impolite manner. His demeanour immediately changed – with his legs bouncing nervously and his hands covering his face to conceal wails – after the detective told him his brother had just been pronounced dead.
“F***, my brother,” he seemed to say to himself through sniffles before asking if police could take him back to the scene to say his goodbyes. Police declined.
“F***ing hell, my brother. F***ing told you, c***. F***ing told you I wasn’t joking.”
Patuawa Nathan returned to the interview room, this time wearing a blue boiler suit, the following afternoon after agreeing to a follow-up interview with Detective Sergeant Robert Cleary.
“He asked how his family was,” Cleary told jurors today of his brief conversation with the defendant before the camera was turned on. “I explained to him they told me they all loved him and cared for him even though we were in the tragic circumstances we were in.”
When asked to describe his relationship with his brother, Patuawa Nathan crossed his fingers to demonstrate how close they were.
“F***, miss my n***a,” he added. “We’d die for each other. F***ing ride or die for each other.”
When asked again to recount the events of the previous evening, he said everyone had been “happy as Larry” before the jovial atmosphere seemed to collapse in just a matter of minutes. Patuawa Nathan said he was angry that the shouting match had escalated to the point where he feared his sister would kick him out, and he was angry that Challas Nathan was calling him a “snitch” for threatening to get his probation revoked. His brother walked away, but Patuawa Nathan said he wanted him out of the house entirely.
“I followed him inside,” he explained. “We were still going off. F***, I was so angry. I just wanted him to go.”
He again acknowledged grabbing the butcher’s knife.
“I said I’m not gonna lose today, because every time we have a fight I’m the one ... getting dropped,” he recalled to the detective.
“I told him I’d f***ing kill him, but f***, I never ever, ever, f***, I never ever thought I’d do it.”
The detective asked him what his intention with the knife had been.
“F***, not to ever touch him, just to keep him away from me,” the defendant responded. “Just to keep that distance from him punching me. F***, it wasn’t to actually stab him with it.”
But everything happened too quickly, he said, explaining that his brother flung the bedroom door open and “was flying at me straight away” so that he didn’t have time to think but only to react.
“After, I tried to say sorry,” he recalled of the immediate aftermath. “I was standing at the door. I didn’t know what to do. I knew, like, I f***ed up and I was just walking back and forwards in the driveway, crying. My dad comes out f***ing crying all loud and, f***, they just started ringing ambulances and screaming.”
Had he intended to stab his brother, he said, “I think it would have been worse”.
But an aspect of his story didn’t make sense, Cleary suggested as the final interview began to wrap up.
“So why go at him if you knew he beat you up before?” he asked. “Why did you go at him? Why didn’t you just back off?”
The defendant replied: “Because we don’t have that in us. You don’t back down to no one.”
The defence asked only a few questions of both detectives. They pointed out that Patuawa Nathan had a lower-than-average IQ of 77. The officers expressed confidence, however, that he could understand their questions and express himself accurately.
The trial is set to continue tomorrow before Justice Paul Radich and the jury.
Craig Kapitan 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.
The Police Association supports cameras but worries about costs.