Luke Tipene murder trial: Accused 'achieved what he set out to do'

17-year-old Luke Tipene who died after a fight in Grey Lynn. Photo / Supplied via Facebook

A teenager deliberately stabbed a rugby league starlet in the neck and must have known death was likely, the Crown says.

Vincent Angene Skeen, 17, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland charged with murdering 17-year-old Luke Tipene.

Neither of the boys had attended the Grey Lynn party where the incident happened, but were there to pick up friends when trouble started in the early hours of November 1.

The pair began fighting and when Mr Tipene got the upper hand, Skeen armed himself and retaliated.

"What's absolutely certain is that the defendant Vincent Skeen stabbed, punched or thrust a jagged broken beer bottle into Luke Tipene's throat, embedding it as far as 10 to 12 centimetres into the neck," Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey said.

The blow pierced the victim's jugular vein and he lost too much blood to survive.

Mr Dickey stressed to the jury that the Crown did not have to prove any element of premeditation in the alleged murder, only that the defendant knew the risks of an attack with the lethal weapon.

"When Vincent Skeen stabbed Luke Tipene's throat, did he mean to cause Luke Tipene injury? That question will take about a second to answer," Mr Dickey said.

"Then the question is: did he know that was the sort of injury that might cause death? You might quite quickly come to the conclusion, of course he knew that.

"When you do that to somebody, when you choose to do that, when you deliberately do that, you know the injury you cause may be life threatening."

The Crown finished calling witnesses this morning and defence lawyer Lorraine Smith then confirmed to the court her client would neither give nor call evidence.

Mr Dickey told the jury Skeen's youth was unimportant and should not cloud their judgement.

He was similarly adamant about any perceived remorse from the teenager.

"That's not relevant. The moment you think that thought, put it out of your mind," Mr Dickey said.

"People who kill other people usually regret what they did."

The defence is expected to close its case this afternoon and the jury will likely begin deliberations tomorrow.

Two independent witnesses who saw the melee from a balcony nearby described seeing Mr Tipene backing away from Skeen with his hands up.

Mr Dickey said: "a more submissive approach to the fight you'd find hard to imagine", and a totally natural reaction to a man armed with a broken bottle, wildly flaying his arms.

"[Skeen] achieved what he set out to do. He got him and he got him real good. He killed him," the prosecutor said.

"What more do you want for murder than that?"

He also pointed to the "powerful evidence" of 19-year-old Carl Jota, one of the defendant's former friends.

The witness gave evidence of Skeen searching in the back of the ute for something after having been knocked down by Mr Tipene.

"He's patently looking for a weapon, because he's just been embarrassed in front of his friends," Mr Dickey said.

Skeen's attitude afterwards was also telling, according to the lawyer.

"I just stabbed that c***," Mr Jota said he heard the defendant say loudly during the aftermath.