Balin Stewart murder trial told talk of killing ‘empty threats’

A teenager charged with the stabbing murder of 16-year-old Balin Stewart claims explosive text messages prove he was acting in self defence. But one text message has mysteriously gone missing.

Balin Stewart, 16, was allegedly stabbed to death outside his Sunshine Coast home.

A teenager accused of fatally stabbing another teen claims he acted in self-defence and has taken to the stand to give his account of the confrontation.

The defendant gave a detailed account of events leading up to the stabbing and what happened afterwards.

Balin Stewart, 16, died on January 20, 2022 after he was allegedly stabbed by a 17-year-old boy in the street outside his home at Buddina on the Sunshine Coast.

His accused killer – now 18, but who cannot be identified – is facing a two-week Brisbane Supreme Court trial and pleaded not guilty to murder at the start of the case on Monday.

Under cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Rebecca Marks on Friday, the defendant conceded he had made threats against Balin’s life prior to the fatal confrontation.

He admitted to telling the girl and others previously: “I f***ing hate him (Balin) so much … he is such a c***.”

The accused killer also agreed he had previously told one of Balin’s friends that he wanted to kill Balin.

On the stand on Friday, the defendant insisted they were “empty threats”.

Defence barrister Charlotte Smith told the jury there was no dispute her client had killed Balin.

Balin Stewart

“What is in dispute is whether the killing was lawful. The defence case will contend that you should consider whether (the accused) was acting in self-defence,” she said.

The defendant said he dropped friends off on the afternoon of January 20 after they had all been to Sunshine Plaza shopping centre.

He got a message from a friend saying a girl – who is at the centre of the tragedy because she was close to the accused killer, and was friends with Balin – wanted him to come to a party that night.

The defendant initially said he would attend. However he later got another text from the same friend saying: “Bro don’t come, they have knives with them.”

The defendant told the court he understood “they” to mean Balin and two of his friends.

The accused said he then got another message from the same friend talking about “a three-on-one knife fight” being discussed at the house party.

The “three-on-one knife fight” was not contained in messages recovered from the defendant’s phone from that night. But he insisted on the stand that he was told this.

The defendant decided not to go to the party.

Later that night, the defendant said he received a series of messages, including some videos, from the girl – who was at Balin’s house. The content of the messages has previously been described to the jury as “provocative”.

They resulted in the accused killer asking Balin: “Do you want to fight?”

Balin Stewart

The defendant testified on Friday he received a video response from the girl in which Balin could be heard saying: “Yeah come, but don’t bring your boys with you.”

The accused killer told the court he grabbed a kitchen knife from his home and put it in the back of his pants. He then drove to Balin’s house.

Ms Smith asked him why he took the knife.

“Because (the defendant’s friend) had texted me saying ‘they had knives’,” the defendant said, referring to Balin and two friends earlier in the night at the house party.

The accused killer arrived at Balin’s house, and called for him to come out. Balin and the girl emerged from the house.

“As Balin was walking out I saw he didn’t have any weapons in his hands, so I assumed he didn’t have anything on him,” the defendant testified on Friday.

“So as he was walking out, I got the knife out of my pants with my right hand and chucked it to my left.”

The boys exchanged words, threw and landed a punch each, before wrestling and grabbing at each other on the ground.

They then got up. The defendant went and found the knife he had thrown away. The girl then marched him to the other side of the road, and told Balin to stay where he was.

Balin Stewart

The defendant claims Balin was “moving his torso forward to make me react” and also puffing up his chest towards him.

After the girl and the defendant talked for a couple of minutes on the other side of the road, the girl told Balin to go inside. Balin turned and headed back towards the house.

However, as he did so, the defendant said: “Good boy, go back inside.”

This caused Balin to turn around and approach the defendant and the girl again. The defendant claims Balin then went to punch him.

At this time, the accused killer said he still had the knife in his right hand.

“At the last second I reacted. He didn’t land his punch. I sort of flinched out of the way and dropped a punch back with my right hand (which connected),” the defendant told the court.

“We’ve both stepped back and I realised the knife is in my hand and at that time it didn’t feel like I had stabbed him because he physically was fine … he was still standing.

“He just walked off towards the sign (on Balin’s side of the road) … 15 seconds later he just dropped onto his back.”

The girl told the accused killer to call an ambulance. He dropped the knife and dialled triple-0. As he did so he went to Balin’s side.

“His eyes were rolled back and I said: ‘Balin, hang in there, I’ve called an ambulance.’”

Balin was declared dead at the scene. The knife pierced his heart.

The trial continues on Monday, with the accused killer continuing his evidence.