Who killed Wiremu Birch? Identity key issue in second retrial of 11-year-old Taupō murder case

Hendrix John Kahia in the dock of the High Court at Hamilton, where for the third time he's defending charges of murdering Wiremu Birch. Photo / Belinda Feek

Identity will be the key issue of the retrial of a man charged with the murder of Taupō teenager Wiremu Birch 11 years ago.

A jury in the High Court at Hamilton is trying to determine whether Hendrix John Kahia was the person seen lunging towards Birch three times in the dark and stabbing him during a street fight in the early hours of October 11, 2013.

While the crown alleges Kahia is the killer, the defence say Kahia is innocent, and instead claims there’s another man who was there that night and has gone all these years escaping any blame.

While 40 witnesses will be called, a key person will be Birch’s girlfriend, Waimarama Nicoll, who the defence claims has been coerced into changing her story.

Nineteen-year-old Birch had been drinking during the day and evening with Nicoll, whānau and associates and went on to become “very drunk” the night he died.

He got into two fights; one with his brother, Thomas, and another with the defendant’s brother, Raymond “Porky” Kahia.

He was also seen stumbling, slurring his words, and yelling Mongrel Mob gang slogans.

Crown solicitor Chris Macklin said it was soon after Birch and Nicoll turned up on Hinekura St at the house of her cousin, who was also president of the Mongrel Mob at the time, that trouble started.

Birch had ended up in the backyard of a house on Hinemoa St. The people in that house were Black Power gang members.

Raymond Kahia yelled out, asking Birch what he was doing, and he replied that he was taking a pee.

There was a verbal exchange before Raymond Kahia and Birch had a fist-fight outside that house on Hinemoa St.

Soon afterwards, it came to an end and an agreement was made that it would be sorted the following morning.

However, as Birch and Nicoll walked back along Hinekura St to her relative’s house on Konini St, a car pulled up.

Macklin said Raymond Kahia jumped out and began trading punches with Birch when it’s alleged Hendrix Kahia, 30, drew a knife and was seen lunging in and out.

Birch was stabbed in the chest, abdomen and thigh.

Hendrix Kahia’s associates were not expecting him to be carrying a knife, and they all got back in the car and fled, later dumping a bag containing the clothes they’d been wearing.

Wiremu Birch, 19, was "very drunk" and had already been in two fights when he was stabbed and left for dead on a Taupō street in October 2013.

‘Hendrix Kahia is not the killer’

“Hendrix Kahia did not stab and kill Wiremu Birch,” defence counsel Elizabeth Hall told the jury.

“But you are going to meet the man who did.”

That man was Kansas Tareha, she submitted.

Birch had been causing problems the night he died, he was drunk and was caught peering in on a woman on the toilet in the Black Power Hinemoa St house.

“Raymond Kahia and Wiremu Birch fought in the street over it.”

She said there had been talk of the two groups sorting out the issue the next morning but the group happened to come across Birch as they drove off.

Hall said Birch had been beating up Nicoll as they walked down the street.

As for Tareha, he knew Nicoll well, she said.

“They had been in a sexual relationship with each other behind Wiremu Birch’s back.

“Kansas [Tareha] stops the car. Porky [Raymond Kahia] gets out of the car and starts to have a fight with Wiremu Birch.

“Kansas got out of the car and Waimarama Nicoll went up to him to stop him... he clotheslined her.

“He was carrying a knife and stabbed Wiremu Birch three times.”

Hall said when Waimarama was questioned at the scene by police, she said Tareha stabbed Birch.

“And Wiremu Birch, with his dying breath, says, ‘and Porky too’,” she said.

“It was Kansas [Tareha] who stabbed him.”

Kansas jumped back in the car and called Birch “dogshit” as they sped off.

Hall said when Kansas was spoken to police later that day, he said he wasn’t there.

She said Tareha broke a golden rule of “blaming someone else to save his own skin”.

The fight happened at the intersection of Hinemoa Ave and Te Hatepe Ave, Taupō. Wiremu Birch was fatally stabbed while leaving the scene along Hinekura Ave towards Konini Ave. Image / Google maps

“Kansas [Tareha] is a seasoned liar in this case. He has never been held to account for what happened that night.

“Kansas Tareha has spent years... and years trying to get Waimarama Nicoll on side so she would cover for him and change her statement to police so she could help him.”

She told the jury the Crown had to prove her client was guilty to the very highest standard and asked them to “make sure that [police] have got the right person on trial”.

“Kansas is the person responsible for his death.

“Hendrix Kahia didn’t kill Wiremu Birch and at the end of the trial you will have a pretty good idea who did.”

Given the case was now being heard for a third time, due to errors being made at earlier trials, Justice Brewer told the jury they might have previously heard things about the case in the news but urged them to “forget about it”.

“Because it’s what you hear in this courtroom. It’s your decision.

“What happened before is totally irrelevant to you.”

The trial is set down for two weeks.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.