PAUL Russell Newburn had long admitted to being responsible for killing Glen Smith at Bolton Point in January last year.
Newburn had used a makeshift spear to stab Mr Smith, 36, in the chest during a "tit-for-tat" fight involving a number of weapons that started when Mr Smith and his partner, Michelle Bell, intervened in a volatile domestic in Leumeah Place.
Newburn, now 34, had offered to plead to manslaughter over the death of Mr Smith before the matter was committed for trial more than 12 months ago, his lawyers, Public Defender Peter Krisenthal and solicitor Robyn Fraser, having raised a partial defence of excessive self-defence.
And then in Sydney Supreme Court in November, Newburn was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter.
The prosecution rejected the plea to manslaughter and the matter was set down for a four-week murder trial in Newcastle Supreme Court, which was due to empanel a jury and begin on Monday.
But on Friday, Newburn was arraigned again and again pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter.
This time Crown prosecutor Brendan Queenan accepted the plea, meaning Monday's trial will be vacated and the murder charge will be subject to no further proceedings.
Newburn will be sentenced in December.
It was about 9pm on January 20 last year when Mr Smith and Ms Bell intervened in a domestic incident involving Newburn and his partner.
And as they were about to accompany Newburn's partner back to the house in Leumeah Place, Mr Smith was warned that his presence outside might make things worse.
A short time later, after a series of escalating arguments and a fight using a golf club and a weapon described as a makeshift spear, Mr Smith was dead, stabbed in the left side of his chest through the fifth rib and into his chest cavity.
