But Richards, through his counsel Christopher Stevenson, will argue there was no murderous intent and he never meant, or wanted, to kill his 43-year-old brother.
On March 17, the Richards’ whānau were together for the tangi of their matriarch Dawn in the small Coromandel settlement of Manaia where most residents are related or known to each other, the jury heard.
She had been lying in state for several days before being buried that day.
That evening, whānau gathered at Joey Richards’ home, known as Tawera Heights.
Joey, 46, became “heavily intoxicated”, Guthrie said, and he and others continued drinking into the early hours.
Guy Richards went home about midnight and returned about 10am the next day.
Unlike others, Guy appeared sober, and he sat at the dining table with whānau, Crown prosecutor Rebecca Guthrie told the court.
Joey was still intoxicated and became agitated and verbally abusive toward his brother, Guy, accusing him of not helping at the funeral.
Guthrie submitted that initially, Guy brushed it off, but the taunts turned into a physical assault, and items were thrown at him by Joey.
“The defendant was the initial aggressor, he wanted to fight his brother. But after a while Guy Richards responded and they began fighting in the main room.”
The pair were “pretty well matched”; Guy was taller, but Joey was the heavier and stronger of the two.
Furniture was knocked over and a glass ranchslider was broken in the tussle.
Cousin Dean Wikaira, who also lived in Manaia, decided that was enough and told Guy to leave the house.
Wikaira, Guy, and Wiremu Baker then all left, Guy driving them back to his house, a short distance away, as Joey leaned out the window and yelled at them.
Wikaira turned and saw Joey driving his car erratically toward them, Guthrie said, as they pulled up into Guy’s driveway.
Guy got out and walked toward Joey, who had also parked.
The pair again began exchanging blows with each other and Joey was seen to punch Guy in an upward motion, similar to an uppercut.
After that happened, Guthrie submitted, Guy stopped “as if stunned” and turned around to face Wikaira who saw blood profusely coming out of a spot in his stomach or chest area.
It is then Joey is alleged to have yelled out, “I will f****** kill you too, Dean”.
After hearing Wikaira yell out, “Oh f*** you have stabbed him”, Baker got out of the car and could see Guy facing away, before he turned and appeared to be holding his chest.
Baker would later testify he wasn’t making any noises, but looked blankly ahead then fell forward on his front.
Once Guy fell to the ground, Baker said he saw Joey holding a knife in his right hand that had blood on it.
Wikaira and Baker ran from the scene, away from Joey and to get help from the nearby marae.
As they ran they could hear Joey yelling, “Get an ambulance” and telling his brother to “wake up”.
A number of whānau were still at the marae tidying up after the previous night’s wake when the pair turned up and spoke with Joey and Guy’s brother-in-law, Dennis Harris.
They told him Guy had been stabbed by Joey and could be dying. At 12.06pm, a 111 call was made to police.
At the scene Harris saw Guy lying dead on the ground in front of his vehicle, Guthrie said in her opening submission.
He covered him and then kept other whānau away from the body as he waited for emergency services to arrive, and for police to secure the scene.
Harris will testify in the trial that he then saw Joey flee the scene in his black Mazda, Guthrie said.
A motorist will also give evidence of seeing a vehicle matching Joey’s being driven at “excessive speed” and overtaking them on State Highway 25.
As the motorist came over the brow of a hill, she saw what looked like the same car having crashed off the road, and down a steep hill into a paddock and rolling several times.
When spoken to by police in Waikato Hospital on March 20, Joey said: “I love my brother”.
“I’m his keeper. He betrayed me. He was choking the f*** out of me.”
The alleged murder weapon, the knife, was never found, Guthrie said.
An autopsy revealed Guy suffered a 16cm-deep stab wound to his upper abdomen wall, that pierced the diaphragm, left lung and heart.
He today admitted a charge of dangerous driving but denies charges of murder and threatening to kill.
Briefly addressing the jury, Stevenson said this case was “immensely sad”.
“One brother killing another as they mourned their mother. The events of this case are tragic but this is a family, or whānau, that has had its fair share of tragedy.”
Joey’s father died in 2018, his brother Damon then died of medical issues, then his mother became unwell and died in 2022.
He said although “siblings don’t always get on”, Joey and Guy were close.
Stevenson said he broadly agreed with the Crown’s opening summary of the case, but said there was “more nuance to it”.
He agreed Joey had the knife and had struck out at his brother, fatally killing him.
“What we say, this is not murder... he didn’t have murderous intent. He didn’t set out to kill his brother.
“He didn’t want or mean for this to happen. ..what we say is, whatever he did it fell short of deliberate intent. He’s struck out not meaning to kill his brother, Guy.”
After learning Guy died, Joey fled, horrified, and ended up crashing off the cliff.
The trial, before a jury of three men and nine women and overseen by Justice Kiri Tahana, is set down for three weeks.
