A teenager in the wrong place at the wrong time was murdered in a South Auckland suburb by brutal strikes to his head from a baseball bat wielded by Jeffrey Alailima Key, a jury was told yesterday.
Key, 26, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland,charged with the murder of Riki Mafi, 17, who died following an attack in Otara Town Centre in 2006.
Crown prosecutor Kevin Glubb said Key was clearly responsible for Mr Mafi's death and knew what he was doing when he swung his bat.
Opening the case for the Crown, Mr Glubb said Key left his Manukau home with his metal baseball bat on the afternoon of September 2, 2006, to join associates in Fulton Cres, near Otara Town Centre.
Later that day, a woman was told by one of two people sitting on a grassy mound in the town centre that they wanted her to get a knife so they could stab someone at the Fulton Cres address.
The woman went to the address and told the occupants.
"Sadly, that foolish remark effectively lit the fuse for what then ensued," Mr Glubb said.
Key and his associates went to the town centre. After chasing one man, they returned to the centre about 11.30pm. Three men were present.
Mr Glubb aid one man ran away after seeing Key and his associates approach. A second was punched to the ground and got away, but Mr Mafi was struck so hard by Key that he was felled.
"Thereafter he is said to have struck him at least once more again to the head with the bat, and he is also said to have kicked him before he was dragged off by other members of that group."
Mr Mafi was taken to Middlemore Hospital, where he died on September 5 of a head injury.
It is the second trial for Key. His first trial last year was abandoned in its second week.
Evidence from 28 witnesses is expected to be presented to the jury of 10 women and two men in a trial scheduled for three weeks.
