A man who stabbed his friend and dropped a rock on his head asked him if he was dead yet and got the response 'not even close brother', a court was told.
New Zealand-born Taukiri Christopher Keen, 20, pleaded guilty in Queensland Supreme Court today to the attempted murder of James Gilders at the Old Boggo Road jail in Brisbane in October 2005.
He was sentenced to nine years in jail.
The court was told Keen and Mr Gilders had been friends for more than two years when the friendship soured after Keen suspected Mr Gilders of sleeping with his girlfriend.
Prosecutor Michael Lehane told the court the pair went to the abandoned prison for a visit and jumped over the walls to get in.
As Mr Gilders bent down, Keen stabbed him in the neck, knocked him to the ground, dropped a large rock on his head twice and stabbed him again.
When he had finished, Keen asked Mr Gilders if he was dead yet, to which Mr Gilders responded: "Not even close, brother".
He got to his feet and the pair shook hands before Keen left the badly injured Mr Gilders to make his own way out of the old prison.
Mr Gilders called an ambulance and was to hospital where he was treated for a broken jaw and stab wounds to his neck, including one which came close to his jugular vein.
He did not make a complaint and the incident did not come to police attention until Keen confessed while police where interviewing him about other incidents in January 2006.
Justice Ann Lyons, noted Keen had "gone off the rails" at a young age after joining gangs in New Zealand when he was just 13.
Justice Lyons sentenced Keen to nine years' jail but ordered he be eligible for parole after 4-½.
Source: News.com