Two long-term residents of a South Auckland lodge were seen on camera eating together, smoking and sharing conversation on a shared deck in the minutes before one of them was fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife.
What caused the abrupt change in circumstances, from convivial conversation to a deadly fight, remains unknown.
But now 501 deportee Uepa Tumaialu, 32, has admitted he inflicted the single wound that pierced victim Ivan Jordan Fifita’s liver and damaged a heart valve.
Tumaialu pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter. Details of the killing, however, were revealed today as the High Court at Auckland released the agreed summary of facts for the case.
The defendant had been set to go to trial in September. Instead, he’ll be sentenced in July.
Court documents state Tumaialu and Fifita, 33, faced off on a Sunday night in June last year after nearly an hour and a half of seemingly friendly interactions. They came and went from their rooms, frequently sitting together on a shared deck at Beatty Lodge.
Then at 8.20pm Fifita stood up, followed nine seconds later by the defendant, and both men raised their fists, according to CCTV footage viewed by police. Fifita threw the first punch, but the defendant blocked it and threw him to the ground, according to the summary of facts.
When the victim got up, Tumaialu lunged at him with both hands.
“Mr Fifita backed away while holding his arms up and attempted to swing his left hand in a punching motion at the defendant, but it did not connect,” court documents state. “The defendant walked forward as Mr Fifita backed away.”
It’s not known exactly when Fifita was stabbed, but he was already bleeding by the time he threw a chair at the defendant and chased him off the deck.
Tumaialu approached the victim again seconds later, breaking a leg off a small table that Fifita had also thrown from the deck. But he walked away after Fifita threw Tumuaialu’s bag at him. The hostilities lasted for just over one minute.
Three minutes after that, Tumaialu returned to the deck, tidied up and again sat down next to Fifita as if nothing had happened.
“Mr Fifita picked up a piece of wood and, while remaining seated, swiped it in the direction of the defendant,” court documents state. “However, the wood did not make contact with the defendant. The defendant did not react to this.”
The two sat together for just three minutes before the defendant again left for his room. Another resident called 111 a short time later after noticing blood on Fifita’s hands as he clutched his stomach and blood coming from his mouth.
The defendant left the lodge within a minute of 111 being called. He threw the bloody knife in a nearby driveway and checked into other accommodation.
He was arrested the next day after showing up at the Ōtāhuhu Probation Office.
He declined to speak with police at the time about what had happened.
Court records note Tumaialu was deported from Australia in 2019.
The maximum possible penalty for manslaughter is life imprisonment, but there is no minimum sentence requirement for the charge, meaning a sentence of home detention is also theoretically possible.
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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