Strang pleads guilty to murder | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A Masterton man who stabbed his childhood friend in the heart, then made a cup of tea as the "gentle giant" bled to death, has pleaded guilty to murder.

The police summary of facts revealed that in the early hours of May 7, Mark Vern Strang, a 44-year-old concrete contractor, confronted flatmate and lifelong friend Blair James Hingston Graves, a 47-year-old sickness beneficiary, intending to kill him at the flat they shared in Masterton's Jordan Terrace.

Mr Graves was an only child who had never married. He also suffered Klinefelter's syndrome, a one-in-a-thousand condition that gives men an extra X chromosome. At 197cm tall, Mr Graves was described as a "gentle giant" who was pleasant and quiet and would back down if challenged or threatened.

The day before the murder both men had been separately arrested on cannabis possession charges after a police warrant was executed at the Lansdowne flat.

Father-of-two Strang claimed he had reached breaking point because he thought Mr Graves had "set him up" for the cannabis sting and had helped cause the break-up of his 20-year marriage by having sex with his wife.

Just after 2am Strang, who had been drinking at the Kuripuni Tavern, got back to the flat and paced around outside for 20 minutes.

"You're dead, I'm going to kill you," Strang yelled, through a stream of other threats and obscenities, as he banged on the door.

Once he had found his keys he went into Mr Graves' bedroom and said: "I told you, Blair, not to f ... with me. This is what happens. I told you I was going to kill you - I've had enough."

Strang then choked Mr Graves and began punching him in the head. During the fight, Strang grazed his hand.

He then fetched a 30cm-long knife with a 20cm blade - the biggest knife in the kitchen - telling Mr Graves he was about to stab him.

Mr Graves tried to fend off Strang, cutting his leg and leaving two deep wounds in his hand.

Eventually Strang overpowered Mr Graves and "with one motion, stabbed him in the chest with full force".

A pathologist's report later revealed the knife had gone 14cm through Mr Graves' chest, puncturing his left lung before penetrating his heart by 2cm.

Strang then pulled the knife out, tossed it to the corner of the bedroom and went into the kitchen and made a cup of tea as Mr Graves lay slumped on the bed bleeding.

Mr Graves tried to get up but managed only to roll on to the floor, where he died shortly after.

A neighbour who had heard the violent struggle arrived and found Strang muttering to himself. "Blair's narked on me - I'm going to prison. He's ruined my daughter's life - he's f ... my missus. He's been stirring shit, texting everybody," he said to the neighbour.

Strang then looked at Mr Graves' bedroom and said: "That's right, Blair, bleed to death."

Strang later told police he had heard Mr Graves gurgling and had closed the bedroom door after shouting: "Rot in hell, you m..." to his dying friend.

"That's number one off my list - number two is to come - that brother of mine," Strang told the neighbour before police arrived to find him smoking a cannabis joint.

According to the police summary, Strang later told detectives in a DVD-recorded interview that he had been angry with Mr Graves for a long time, accusing him of spreading rumours and lies about his marriage.

Strang told police his first marriage had disintegrated after his wife began an affair with his older brother.

He told police Mr Graves knew about the affair but hadn't told him.

"Strang also claimed that Graves had written him a love letter, pledging his enduring love for Strang. Strang believed Graves had engineered his marriage breakdown so Strang would be available for a relationship with him," the summary reads.

"I just couldn't take it any more, it was ... enough was enough," Strang said as the police interview ended.

At the Masterton District Court yesterday, Judge Stephen Harrop convicted Strang of murder and remanded him in custody for sentencing in the High Court at Wellington in October.