Murder victim Jiayi 'Kiko' Li. Photo / supplied
The man accused of murdering student Kiko Li claims he tried to dissuade his friend from carrying out the killing.
Honglin Yu denies murdering Kiko Li and stealing her ATM card in May last year.
At the High Court in Auckland today the 21-year-old continued giving evidence about the night Kiko was stabbed to death in her car.
He told the court he sent a text message to his friend Yongxin Li the day before the killing which said "talk about it later".
The Crown alleges Kiko was killed during a kidnapping and robbery. They took her for a driving lesson with the intention of stealing her card but she was stabbed 22 times, the prosecution says.
But Yu said there was no plan to kill Kiko and it was his friend Yongxin Li who used the knife in the early hours of May 19.
Speaking through a Mandarin interpreter he said the text meant he didn't want to talk to Li any more.
He then broke into English: "It is my way to refuse people because it is hard for me to say no to a friend and also, I didn't want to talk about it."
Yesterday he told the court he had been giving Kiko a driving lesson while Li was in the back seat.
He said Li began strangling Kiko and he grabbed Li's arm. At one point Kiko bit Li's arm and screamed before Li brought out a knife and stabbed her.
Yu said he was driving down Scenic Drive in west Auckland as Li killed Kiko.
"When he pulled the knife out of Kiko, he pointed it at me immediately. I didn't know whether he would stab me as well, he might kill me as well."
Yu said he had made "several silly, silly mistakes" but did not want the murder to go ahead.
He said he should never have texted his friend Li about a robbery and kidnapping and should never have mentioned his friend Kiko as a possible target. "It was a stupid, stupid thing to say."
He said he was sorry he had not gone to police and told them what happened to Kiko but he had been worried no one would have believed him.
"I was scared. I was being selfish. I didn't want to go to jail for something I didn't do, something I didn't want to do."
He said had he known Li had a knife that night, he would never have let him into the car with Kiko.
"I thought I knew him. I thought I knew he wouldn't do that but I didn't know. I'm sorry."
The court has heard about text messages from Yu to Li in the days leading up to the killing. One of them said: "Kiko has probably quite a lot of money in the card. Family is also very rich. May consider it. Furthermore. I know her pin."
But Yu told the court he never had any intention of hurting Kiko and tried to talk Li out of robbing and killing her.
"He decided the target straight away and wanted to kill her," Yu said.
He said later text messages showed he did not want to go through with the murder.
Yu said he tried to make excuses to hold Li back from robbing and killing Kiko and sent a text to Li five days before the killing that said: "I've obtained two thousand. Put our plan on hold first."
He told the court he was paid $2000 after referring foreign students to an agent.
"Since we had the money, we should not do these things. It was not right to do these things," Yu told the court.
Yu's lawyer Mark Edgar earlier described today as "judgement day" for his client.
He described the Crown's evidence as "compelling" but said Yu had second thoughts about the planned murder and robbery of Kiko.
"He was compromised and somewhat bewildered about what happened in the car that night."
He acknowledged Yu lied to police when he was first interviewed. "He's going to have to front up to that in this trial."
Yu apologised to the court yesterday for lying to police.
Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins and Yu's lawyer Mark Edgar will sum up their cases tomorrow.