Teen murder accused's 'plan of retribution'

BY CLIO FRANCIS

Two Auckland teenagers bent on retribution stabbed a man to death and tried to kill another after an 18th birthday party, an Auckland court was told today.

Daryl Graydon, 24, of Panmure, was stabbed to death on December 8 2007 on Ridge Rd, Howick.

Two men, now both aged 20, are charged with his murder.

They are also charged with attempted murder and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to another man, Campbell Sussex.

The men, who have interim name suppression, deny all charges.

At the High Court in Auckland crown prosecutor Steve Symon told the court on the night of the murder the two men had been at an 18th birthday party.

They left around 1am and as they walked home, encountered Mr Graydon and friends walking down Mellon Rd, Howick.

An altercation broke out, and the victim, Mr Graydon, punched one of the accused in the face.

The two men, angry and embarrassed, then "hatched a plan of retribution", Mr Symon said.

The two men ran to one of their houses and grabbed three knives from the kitchen.

They walked for 2 kilometres until they caught up with Mr Graydon and his friend Campbell Sussex.

They yelled out to the two men, saying: "Two on two".

"They wanted to lure Mr Graydon and Mr Sussex into having a confrontation with them."

When Mr Graydon and Mr Sussex turned towards them they pulled out their knives and said: "knifey, knifey".

"It didn't take a genius to work out what they meant. The accused were going to use the knives."

Mr Grayson ran and was chased down by one of the men who stabbed him five times in the arm, back and chest.

The other man took off after Mr Sussex and lunged at him with a knife. He missed Mr Sussex and as he paused, heard the screams of Mr Graydon and fled.

Mr Graydon bled to death before the ambulance arrived.

The next day the two men went to a friends house and discussed the killing, one of them saying: "I stabbed the dude in the arm or something", Mr Symon said.

Police arrested one of the men in a Tauranga Hotel on December 28, 2007. He had been celebrating the New Years holiday break with friends.

The second man fled to Brisbane with his girlfriend four days after the stabbing.

He shaved his head and assumed a fake name, the court was told.

He was arrested by police in Australia on January 8 2008 and returned to New Zealand.

The lawyer for one of the men, Lorraine Smith, said all her client had wanted to do that night was get the knives off his drunk and angry friend.

He had never intended to kill anyone, Ms Smith said.

"What happened to Mr Graydon was the very reason why he chased after his friend to take the third knife off him."

The lawyer for the other man, Barry Hart, said it was the obligation of the crown to prove his client's guilt.

A jury of five men and seven woman has been selected to hear the case before Justice Raynor Asher.

The trial is set down for three weeks.

- © Fairfax NZ News