A 15-year-old girl who plunged a knife into the chest of a man who had caught her breaking into his car has been allowed to keep her name secret.

The girl, now 16, was sentenced to two years and 11 months imprisonment in the High Court in Hamilton on Monday morning after being found guilty by a jury of the manslaughter of Norman Kingi, 54, who died following the incident in Rānui Street, Hamilton, about 11.30pm on Friday, July 28 last year.

The girl was granted permanent name suppression at her sentencing by Justice Timothy Brewer.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF Police launched a homicide investigation following the incident in Dinsdale on July 28 last year.

This was on the basis that her rehabilitation back into society once her jail sentence was completed would be crippled if her name was "out there on social media".

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The girl and a 13-year-old accomplice stood trial in the same court in October, each facing charges of murdering Kingi. The older girl was found guilty of manslaughter by the jury, while her younger accomplice - who has permanent name suppression - was found not guilty of either murder or manslaughter.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/STUFF Police quickly cordoned off the scene where the incident took place.

The Crown case against the pair alleged they were the elder two of three girls - at the time aged 15, 13 and 12 - who were caught in the act of breaking into a Nissan Primera owned by Kingi and his partner, Vicki-Lee Reihana, which was parked outside their house.

The couple caught the youngest girl, while the other two ran off - only to return soon after armed with a knife and a screwdriver.

There was a confrontation and the oldest girl, who had the knife, stabbed Kingi in the heart, fatally injuring him.

The Crown case, led by Philip Morgan QC, was that both girls had made a conscious decision and had a common intention to go back to the car in a bid to rescue their younger companion, and the stabbing of Kingi by the older girl was a deliberate act.

At sentencing, Morgan sought a start point of seven years imprisonment.

The girl's lawyer, Ron Mansfield, asked for a five year start point.

Justice Brewer opted for six years. He allowed for a 35 per cent discount to reflect her young age, and a further 15 per cent in acknowledgement that through her counsel the girl had offered to plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter about six weeks before the trial began.

The Crown stuck to pursuing the murder charges against the pair, and the jury found the older girl guilty of manslaughter.

The judge also deducted a further five months from the sentence to reflect the time the girl had spent on electronic bail awaiting trial.

In sentencing, he acknowledged the maximum penalty for manslaughter was life imprisonment.

"Sometimes the death of a person is very close to an accident. In other times a manslaughter can be within a whisker of murder," the judge told the teenager.

"Your case is not at either of those extremes."

Five family members and friends of Kingi delivered victim impact statements prior to the girl's sentencing and the judge said he was moved by these and they picture they painted of a man of great mana, who enriched the lives of those around him.

"It is credit to everyone who has spoken that they have not written words of anger to you," Justice Brewer told the girl. "They speak with dignity of their grief."

In seeking permanent name suppression for his client, Mansfield argued that the value of fully rehabilitating her as a productive member of society outweighed the value of people knowing who she was.

There were numerous instances in New Zealand of young killers who had become household names, and as a consequence had little chance of moving on with their lives - and many of these had fallen back into lives of crime as a result.

Mansfield told the court his client was remorseful, had been deemed at low risk of reoffending, and fully acknowledged that her actions had caused Kingi's death.

She had come from a good and supportive family, but had fallen under the sway of other influencers who had led her astray.

On the night Kingi was killed she felt considerable loyalty to her young cousin and returned to confront Kingi.

"From that point everything went terribly wrong."

Morgan argued against permanent suppression of the girl's name, as there were no extraordinary circumstances that meant she would suffer greater hardship than anyone else convicted of such a crime.

Among those who delivered victim statements to the court was Reihana, Kingi's partner for 30 years who spoke of "a passionate man who worked hard and played hard," who loved cooking and sport and international travel and "who was always planning the next trip".

"If he loved you, he loved you well."