A witness in a murder trial maintained under continued cross-examination that he saw first-hand how his friend was fatally stabbed in a 2022 fight at Horseshoe Bay.

While Elijah Smith told the court that he saw Eze Hart stab Kanye Ford twice with a black-handled knife, Charles Richardson, counsel for Mr Hart, said the witness had lied to police and the courts.

Mr Richardson said the defendant accepted that there had been an argument about a phone, and that the deceased was subsequently involved in a physical fight with the defendant.

However, he said that the witness had never seen Mr Hart with a knife and that he had made up a “convoluted story” that did not mesh with the physical evidence.

“Yes, he hit him with the bottle and they did fight and they fell to the ground, but at no point did Mr Hart pull out a knife,” Mr Richardson said.

Elijah Smith responded that while he did not see where the defendant got the knife from, he had seen him stab Mr Ford in the left hip as they struggled on the ground and again in the chest after Mr Ford returned to his feet.

“Eze ran past Kanye and he took his right hand and he stabbed Kanye in the upper left side of his chest close to his heart,” he said.

Mr Hart, 22, has denied murdering 16-year-old Mr Ford in the Horseshoe Bay car park on September 9, 2022.

A forensic pathologist said that Mr Ford died as a result of a sharp force injury to the left side of his chest which perforated his heart.

Elijah Smith told the court on Wednesday that he had gone to the beach with Mr Ford and Jansen Smith to attend a party.

While there, he said a dispute arose with one of Mr Hart’s friends questioning the group about a stolen phone.

He told the jury that while the dispute settled down, Mr Ford got into a verbal argument with a female friend of Mr Hart, and Mr Hart struck Mr Ford in the back of the head with a bottle.

Elijah Smith said he saw Mr Hart stab Mr Ford in the hip while the pair were on the ground, and saw a second blow to the chest a short time later.

He said that Mr Ford told his friends that he loved them and began to ask them to say something to his mother before he fell silent.

However, Mr Richardson said the story of Mr Ford’s last words were a “dramatic addition” and that the injuries he had suffered would have left him unable to speak after seconds.

“He wasn’t physically in a position to be telling anybody that he loved them,” he said.

Elijah Smith responded that Mr Richardson was wrong and the victim was able to speak to both him and friend Jansen Smith before police and paramedics arrived.

Mr Richardson also noted several details given in court that were not given to police during a 2023 interview, including a claim that the witness had kicked Mr Hart and that he had arrived at the beach on a stolen bike.

Shown clips of the video-recorded interview, Elijah Smith said that he felt “frustrated” by questions from the officers including repeated queries about how he arrived at the scene.

In the interview, the witness repeatedly asked if he could “skip” the question and, when directly asked if he came to the beach on a stolen bike, denied it.

Elijah Smith told the court: “When I was giving this interview, I told them what happened to my friend. I didn’t think he would ask those kind of questions.”

Mr Richardson said: “You thought you were going to walk in, tell this story you made up and the police were going to say ‘thank you’ — and that’s not what happened.”

The witness denied that he had made up his story, but maintained that he was frustrated by both the death of his friend and the rumours that he had been responsible.

Mr Richardson then put Mr Hart’s version of events to Elijah Smith, alleging that he, Mr Ford and Jansen Smith arrived at the party with ski masks and, at some stage, grew angry that one of their stolen bikes had been stolen.

He said that later in the evening there was an argument about a mobile phone, which turned into an argument between Mr Ford and a female friend of Mr Hart.

Mr Richardson suggested that Mr Hart struck Mr Ford with a bottle only after Mr Ford violently shoved the woman, which Elijah Smith denied.

The witness also denied that in the midst of the fight he produced a knife, which was kicked from his hand by the female, leaving the two to scramble to recover it.

Mr Richardson alleged that Elijah Smith recovered the knife, but that he did not approach Mr Ford and Mr Hart, which the witness also denied.

The lawyer suggested that Jansen Smith came towards the two scuffling men with a knife and stabbed downward, which Elijah Smith again denied.

However, he did accept that both Mr Hart and Mr Ford were wearing white shirts during the altercation.

The witness denied a claim that after Mr Ford and Mr Hart were separated, Mr Hart’s friends went to check on Mr Ford, but were told to leave by Elijah Smith and Jansen Smith, who had knives.

The trial will continue next week.

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