‘Grab him’ or ‘stab him’ trial retires

Within about two minutes, a discussion in a Hamilton car port turned into a fatal stabbing at the end of the driveway.

Johnny Junior Bennett, 27, was stabbed in the chest on December 1, 2019, and died a week later in Waikato Hospital.

Selassie-I Iraia, 20, was convicted of manslaughter for delivering the fatal blow. But a jury must now decide whether her aunt – Betty-Jo Anderson-Humphrey, Bennett’s recent ex – encouraged her by yelling ‘‘stab him’’, which would also make her guilty of manslaughter.

The incident in Lilac Street, Melville, was captured on CCTV, and the jury’s focus will be on a single word: whether Anderson-Humphrey yelled ‘‘stab him’’ or ‘‘grab him’’.

Her trial began on Monday. Anderson-Humphrey says she yelled ‘‘grab him’’, because she was intent on making sure Bennett couldn’t take their daughter from her.

He’d confirmed their relationship was over by text earlier in the day, and she was drunk and emotional, and obsessed with getting him to sign an access agreement, the jury heard.

Jurors’ interpretation of the CCTV audio could be affected by what they know about the case, defence counsel Philip Morgan QC said.

‘‘The crux is, you all know there was a knife.

‘‘It’s just as likely that what she really wanted was for her niece to grab [Bennett] so he couldn’t just leave her in this terrible limbo as to what was going to happen with their child.’’ The Crown alleges the access paperwork was an excuse for Anderson-Humphrey to go around and confront Bennett and the new girlfriend she suspected he had.

It would be a ‘‘terrible and unfortunate coincidence’’ if AndersonHumphrey had yelled ‘‘grab him’’ and her niece hadn’t heard but ‘‘because she just happened to have a knife in her hand at the time, uses that knife to fatally stab Mr Bennett,’’ Crown prosecutor Rebecca Guthrie said.

Her panic after the incident also suggested she’d done something wrong and was worried about the consequences, Guthrie said.

The fact Anderson-Humphrey had repeatedly lied to police also made her less credible, Guthrie said. The jury has not yet reached a verdict and the case will continue today.