Tristan James Lee, 30, who was charged with murder in May last year, appeared before Wagga’s Local Court on Wednesday to begin his pre-trial committal hearing.

However, on just the second day of that hearing, Crown prosecutor Andrew Hanshaw withdrew the murder charge and offered Lee an alternative charge of manslaughter. 

Lee sat handcuffed in the dock while public defender Michael King informed the court his client would be pleading guilty to the fresh charge. 

After magistrate Erin Kennedy informed Lee he would now be committed to the District Court for sentencing, he faced his family members in the public gallery and told them he loved them. 

“I love you, darling,” his mother replied as she broke down in tears.

On the first day of Lee’s committal hearing, the court heard that Murdoch was found bleeding to death in a driveway in the early hours of May 16 last year after an altercation with Lee outside his Tolland home.

The police officer in charge of the case said Lee later told him: “Look, man, I’ll tell you what happened off the record – the bloke came around to buy drugs and stole Katie’s phone. I grabbed my hunting knife and chased him. I thought I only nicked him.”

READ MORE: 

According to documents tendered to the court, Murdoch and a friend visited Lee's Toy Place home about 2am on the morning of his death to buy drugs.

When Lee asked them to leave, his then partner Katie Lee Burgess noticed her phone and some of her money were missing from the house. 

Lee asked Murdoch to empty his pockets, but he refused and ran outside, where a physical altercation between the two man began before Murdoch fled. 

As Lee chased Murdoch ran through a dark, grassy laneway connecting Toy Place and French Place, he fell on top of him and stabbed him with an outstretched knife he had been running with. 

Ms Burgess later called triple-0, who found Murdoch dead in a French Place driveway. 

Murdoch sustained a 10 centimetre deep wound that severed an artery in his leg, leading emergency services to conclude that he would have bled to death in no more than three minutes. 

A trail of blood measuring some 50 metres was found running from the laneway to the driveway where Murdoch died.

Later that day, Lee told a police officer his friend had "brought some c--- over I didn't know to buy drugs off me. He runs down the road. I chase him, he fell over. I had the knife in my hand. Two hours later he is f---ing dead." 

Lee will appear before Wagga’s District Court on July 27, when his final sentencing date will be set.