A panel of judges is considering its verdict in the trial of Zhen Xiao, who has admitted murdering Auckland taxi driver Hiren Mohini in January last year.
Xiao eluded New Zealand police for a week after Mr Mohini was killed and then fled to China.
The 24-year-old kitchen hand is on trial in Shanghai, after a deal was brokered between Chinese and New Zealand authorities.
The court heard how Xiao allegedly stabbed Mr Mohini in the heart because he was angry at comments the taxi driver had made.
Inside the court Zhen said he did not mean to kill Mr Mohini. He claimed when he caught his taxi in January last year the pair got chatting, and when Zhen said he worked in a hotel, Mr Mohini was not impressed.
Zhen alleges Mr Mohini said that Asians come to New Zealand to steal jobs, and then a argument broke out in the cab.
Zhen said he asked Mr Mohini to let him out, but he refused without his fare, then things took a horrible turn.
He says he did not mean to kill Mr Mohini or stab him in the heart.
"I did not mean to kill the driver. I am sorry for what I did. I am guilty," he said.
"Please forgive me ... I am still young, have no previous criminal record and am the only child in the family. I was scared of the result so I did not surrender. Please consider these reasons for giving me a lenient sentence."
Mr Mohini's widow Falguni told 3 News she did not go to the trial for several reasons; she couldn't afford it and she didn't want to leave the girls, but mainly because she could not face it
Zhen faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and Falguni Mohini hopes he gets it, and hopes he thinks about what he has done every single day.
Speaking from Shanghai last night, officer in charge of the New Zealand homicide investigation, Detective Senior Sergeant Hywel Jones said that while Zhen verbally agreed in Court with some of the evidence against him, that did not equate to a guilty plea.
“The Judges will now deliberate on what they’ve heard in the first public hearing of this murder trial,” he said.
Xiao will be sentenced in the next few days.
Under the Chinese Crimes Act there are different categories of murder. From the time he was first formally charged some months ago, Zhen was charged with the category 'Murder - Wounding with intent to cause death'.
3 News