Teenager Found Guilty of Murder of Napier Teen Kaea Karauria, Digi Mart USA News (Napier, New Zealand): A jury in the High Court at Palmerston North took two hours to find a teenager guilty of murdering 15-year-old Kaea Karauria by stabbing him with a knife. The teen had been on trial for the past fortnight over the attack, which took place in May 2025.
The teen, who has name suppression, will remain in custody until he is sentenced next month in Napier. When the unanimous verdict was delivered on Tuesday afternoon, he stood impassively in the dock while his family and supporters sat in the public gallery behind him.
Earlier that day, Justice Karen Grau summed up the case for the jury. The Crown alleged that the teen, then aged 15, joined an attack on Kaea that began because one of the teen’s friends was upset about a minor incident at a party weeks earlier.
The attack took place on Dinwiddie Ave in Napier, outside another party. The teen was sitting in a car when he noticed what was happening, ran over, pulled a knife and stabbed Kaea in the chest and neck.
One of the several blows severed an artery, which caused Kaea’s death. The teen did not know Kaea.
“He has chosen to stab Kaea in a dangerous or vulnerable part of the body,” Justice Grau said, summarizing the Crown’s argument.
Kaea ran from his attackers, who were associated with the Mongrel Mob and were shouting “sieg f***ing heil,” around the corner onto Alexander Ave in the suburb of Onekawa. The Crown said the teen stabbed Kaea again there.
The teen and his friends then returned to Dinwiddie Ave. The teen grabbed a phone and recorded a video of his bloody hand holding the murder weapon.
The Crown argued that, despite the teen’s limitations, he knew what he was doing and intended to kill, or at least knew his actions could kill Kaea, and did it anyway.
The defence said the second part of the attack did not take place, although the teen admitted stabbing Kaea on Dinwiddie Ave, and argued he should be found guilty of manslaughter. The defence said the teen had been drinking and taking drugs that day, had no intention to kill Kaea, and, because of a significant intellectual impairment, did not understand his actions could cause death.
It also said a Crown witness to the second phase of the attack was unreliable.
The teen gave evidence in his own defence and admitted “swinging the knife around like a maniac,” the judge said. Justice Grau told the jury the defence argued that, given the teen’s brain development, youth, intellectual disability and the effects of drugs and alcohol that night, the case was one of manslaughter rather than murder.
Two others have pleaded guilty to Kaea’s manslaughter, and two others faced charges of injuring with intent in the Youth Court. The trial sat for no longer than 30 minutes at a time to allow the teen regular breaks.
He was assisted by communications advisers and spent much of his time in court fiddling with items or drawing.
The court heard the teen has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and his mother said she drank heavily and used drugs while pregnant. His IQ ranked him in the lowest 2 percent of the population.
Kaea attended Napier Boys’ High School, where he was described as a quiet and respectful student who loved sport. He died at about 3 a.m.
on Sunday, May 11, 2025, in the backyard of a stranger’s house, having cleared several fences on Alexander Ave while running for his life. One of his friends found him crying in pain and unable to speak.
