Four stab wounds to the chest with a boning knife caused the death of a Bay of Plenty man last year, the High Court at Rotorua has heard.
Vincent Allan Morrell, 34, unemployed from Wanganui, denies murdering Lemuel Herbert at Taneatua, 13km south of Whakatane, on May 27 last year.
Opening the
Crown's case yesterday, Greg Hollister-Jones said the attack happened after Morrell and another man drove to a property in Taneatua to sell drugs. Finding no one home, the pair went to sleep in their car.
The house owner and his next door neighbour -- Mr Herbert -- returned from a rugby game and found the car parked at the property. Both men approached the car to investigate and tried to wake the two men inside without success.
Mr Hollister-Jones told the jury that eventually the two men awoke screaming.
"At that point the accused started reacting extremely aggressively to being woken up in this way (being yelled at and shaken). He started pushing Mr Herbert and very quickly without any fight from Mr Herbert the accused stabs him four times in the chest with a white-handled boning knife."
Morrell was then dragged from the car and suffered a "prolonged and severe" beating by others at the scene.
When initially questioned by police, Morrell said he could not remember anything from the time he was sleeping in the car until waking up in hospital the next morning.
After further questioning, Morrell said he woke up and was being hit with a stick. He hopped out of the car and "just lost it", Mr Hollister-Jones said.
The trial, before Justice Anderson and a jury of seven men and five women, is set down to continue until the end of the week.
- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)
