Police remain at the scene of a Mt Albert Kāinga Ora estate where a person died on Monday afternoon. Video / Ben Dickens
When Chrishan Natan Raju fatally stabbed his partner’s close male friend with a 30cm kitchen knife, it was due to a long, simmering resentment, Crown prosecutors suggested today.
But Joeli Rankin, who died at the scene, had broken into the defendant’s house while yelling threats and wielding amachete, Raju’s lawyer Jasper Rhodes countered.
It is not in dispute that Raju, who also suffered stab wounds, killed Rankin.
Rhodes signalled today that the focus of the murder trial over the next week will be whether jurors in the High Court at Auckland believe Raju acted in self-defence.
Emergency responders arrived at the Kāinga Ora flat in Mt Albert on February 26 last year to find Rankin dead.
Raju, 27, who goes by “Chris”, had been arguing with his partner when she called Rakin asking for help moving out, Crown prosecutor Madeleine Purcell explained in her opening address.
“They had been friends for five or so years and there was nothing romantic about the relationship,” she said.
Prosecutors say Raju overheard the call and threatened to kill Rankin if he came to the property.
When Raju’s partner relayed the threat, Rankin told her he would bring a machete and it would cause Raju to back down, jurors were told.
Police and investigators outside Chrishan Raju's Mt Albert flat after Joeli Rankin was stabbed to death inside. Photo / Jaime Lyth.
Rankin arrived about 10 or 15 minutes later with his partner, authorities said. His partner filmed their arrival on her mobile phone, showing Rankin throwing his machete into the bushes as he began pounding on the door, jurors were told. The jury has not yet seen the footage.
After no one opened the locked door, Rankin retrieved the machete and jumped the back fence, entering the home through a ranch slider, prosecutors said. The two men confronted each other in a hallway and Rankin was stabbed in the chest.
Police secure the scene where Joeli Rankin was stabbed on Monday, February 26, 2024. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Two people have been critically injured in an incident on Asquith Ave, Mt Albert, Auckland on Monday, February 26, 2024. Photo / Jason Oxenham
But he didn’t die immediately, Purcell said, explaining that Rankin was able to remove the knife from his body and use the same weapon to stab Raju.
The defendant was later hospitalised with a punctured lung and a stab wound to his back.
Rhodes insisted there was never a moment during the confrontation that Raju wasn’t acting in self-defence.
“He didn’t want Mr Rankin to die, but if he didn’t arm himself ... there’s every chance he could have been the one to die,” Rhodes said.
His client, Rhodes said, was “attacked with a machete during a home invasion” by someone who was enraged and yelling, “That c*** is getting f***ed!”.
“When attacked in his own home ... what else was he supposed to do other than defend himself?”
Emergency services at the Mt Albert flat on February 26, 2024. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith sent jurors home today immediately after the lawyers’ brief addresses. The first witnesses are expected to give evidence on Wednesday, with the trial expected to end by early next week.
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.
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