A little over a week before Joeli Rankin was fatally stabbed through the heart while forcing his way into a Mt Albert home with a machete in hand, he fought another man while allegedly using a knife. 

Zain Ali held his fingers about 20cm apart today as he demonstrated the length of a cut he said he found on his back after a scuffle with Rankin on February 18 last year. 

Ali was the first defence witness in the ongoing murder trial of his long-time friend, Chrishan Raju, who would end up stabbing Rankin to death on February 26 last year. 

Raju, 27, has claimed self-defence. 

During the defence opening address yesterday, lawyer Jasper Rhodes said his client would have been aware Ali had been cut by Rankin just days earlier. 

Knowing Rankin allegedly had a history of using weapons in fights would have affected Raju’s state of mind regarding whether he felt lethal force was necessary to protect himself, the lawyer suggested. 

Chrishan Raju appears in the High Court at Auckland during his July 2025 murder trial. Defence lawyer Jasper Rhodes (foreground) has suggested his client fatally stabbed Joeli Rankin out of self-defence inside a Mt Albert Kāinga Ora flat on February 26 last year. Photo / Michael Craig 

The Crown has contended Rankin went to the house because Raju’s girlfriend had asked for his help. Raju wouldn’t let her and her two young children leave when she said she wanted to break up with him, she told jurors last week. 

The woman said Rankin, a platonic friend, brought along a machete only after Raju threatened to stab Rankin if he came to get her. 

Rankin’s arrival at the Mt Albert home was caught on video, and jurors could hear him yelling out taunts to the defendant before breaking the window to Raju’s room, then trying unsuccessfully to kick in the front door. 

Moments later, Rankin climbed a fence and entered the back of the home through an unlocked ranch slider with the machete in hand. 

He walked straight to Raju’s room, the woman said, further telling the court that she heard a scuffle and when both men emerged into the hallway, blood was everywhere. Raju had earlier that day armed himself with a steak knife from the kitchen, she said. 

Rankin managed to pull the steak knife out of his own chest and stab Raju with it before collapsing, prosecutors said at the outset of the trial. The machete was never actually used as a weapon, it has been suggested. 

Joeli Rankin was stabbed to death inside a Mt Albert home on February 26 last year. Photo / Jason Oxenham 

But did Rankin actually have a machete on him days earlier when he had confronted Raju’s friend? Prosecutors expressed scepticism. 

Ali, who is currently in jail for an unrelated matter, was escorted to the witness box in the High Court at Auckland by a security officer yesterday afternoon. 

He recalled first hearing of Rankin shortly before Ali’s release from jail on another matter, when his partner dropped a “bombshell” that she had started dating Rankin during his incarceration. 

Ali said he exchanged some angry Facebook messages with his ex before Rankin contacted him directly, threatening, “I know where you live.” 

Because he had an ankle monitor as a condition of his release from jail, Ali said he couldn’t leave his parents’ Lynfield home. But he offered for Rankin to come to his home so they could fight, he told jurors. 

“Yeah, come to my home if you want to have a clean one-on-one – no weapons,” he recalled telling Rankin. 

Rankin took him up on the offer, showing up the first time on February 11. They didn’t end up exchanging blows on that occasion, but Ali said Rankin briefly pulled up his hoodie as the two stood at arm’s length before walking away. 

“I saw him flash up some sort of machete or something under his shirt,” he told jurors. 

Seven days later, Rankin returned to the home saying he was there to retrieve a laptop belonging to Ali’s ex. He was yelling slurs and again challenging Ali to a fight, the witness said. 

Ali said his mother tried to de-escalate the situation while his father held Ali back inside the home. But Ali said he got angry after Rankin wouldn’t stop yelling taunts so he went outside to confront him. 

The men exchanged punches and both fell to the ground at one point, Ali said, adding that Rankin spat on his mother and punched his father in the mouth as the father tried to break up the scuffle. 

“When I got back inside, I realised I had like a slash on my back,” Ali said, acknowledging that he never saw a weapon. 

Prosecutor Sam McMullan noted that Ali didn’t tell anyone about a cut or a wound to his back at the time of the fight. When Ali denied he was lying about seeing a knife on the first occasion and getting cut on the second, McMullan pointed out his dozen previous convictions for dishonesty offences. 

Ali acknowledged he had a history of being dishonest, but insisted: “not in this case”. 

Ali’s parents also gave evidence, filling out the remainder of the defence case. Raju has opted not to enter the witness box to give his own account. 

Both sides are expected to give closing addresses when the trial resumes today before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith and the jury. 

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.