'We're not looking for trouble': The hours before Cole Miller was killed

A pool of blood grows on the ground underneath 18-year-old Cole Miller, coming out of his head and his mouth as he lays there unconscious, never to wake up.

His attackers, Daniel Maxwell and Armstrong Renata, flee Fortitude Valley's Chinatown Mall almost immediately, Maxwell laughing at the "cowardly" attack.

"I'm sorry about this," Mahonri Manaia says, over and over again, left behind with another man to clean up his friend's tragic mess.

Maxwell was drunk, he says, later telling police the man he met only six weeks earlier had been getting more and more aggressive as the night edged into the wee hours.

"I could see that the kid on the ground had a lot of blood coming out of his mouth," the other man, Jay Taliaivao, told police.

"When I took my hands away from his mouth I noticed that I bad blood all over my hands.

"When I was down doing first aid I could hear Mahonri saying to the other kid that he was sorry for what had happened. He kept saying this over and over."

It was the last and most devastating of a series of fights the New Zealander tried to pick in the space of a few minutes, a twisted end to his 21st birthday celebrations that would leave one man dead, himself awaiting deportation on assault convictions and his friend facing years in jail for delivering the killer blow.

Hours earlier, two groups of friends went about preparing and pre-drinking for two vastly different Saturday nights out in the city's party precinct.

Police interviews tendered in Maxwell's aborted application for bail last year revealed the lead-up and aftermath of the attack that killed Cole Miller, as well as what was going through the mind of one of his attackers and his best friend.

Maxwell and Armstrong's night

About 9pm that Saturday, Maxwell, Renata, Elijah Keresoma, Jay Taliaivo and Lokeni Utai met up at Mr Manaia's home in the Logan suburb of Meadowbrook, about 20 kilometres south of Brisbane.

Maxwell had been living in Melbourne with a family friend since 2012 and told police he had ended up on a "working holiday" in Queensland after heading up to visit his cousin. in an affidavit, the former apprentice barber, then 21, said Renata was the brother of his cousin's girlfriend and he didn't know him particularly well.

Both of Mr Miller's attackers wore baseball caps - one Nike and one Chicago Bulls - jeans and black T-shirts as the group piled into separate cars to head into the Valley 20 minutes later.

Mr Manaia, who said he did not know either of the attackers well, told police the group split a carton of pre-mixed Canadian Clubs between them, starting to drink them on the drive in.

They kept drinking in the Chinatown Mall car park until a security guard kicked them out, leaving them to finish their drinks in a nearby alley before heading to the Valley Wine Shop for another dozen cans because Maxwell wanted to keep drinking.

It was about 11pm by the time the small group lined up for the Hot Gossip nightclub in nearby Brunswick Street Mall, scanning their IDs before heading inside to dance, "getting with" girls and, for most of them, doing shots of Bacardi.

As the night wore on, Maxwell started causing trouble, getting kicked out for the most innocuous of reasons. He refused to abide by the club's no-hats policy and two security guards grabbed his arms and turfed him out.

"It was at that time that I noticed he was becoming a bit aggressive as he was poking fingers at the girl who was kicking him out," Mr Manaia told police.

The group split but eventually reunited at the pizza place next door.

By this stage, Mr Manaia noticed Maxwell was getting "really aggressive" as they headed back to Chinatown Mall, picking fights with three different people.

"The first person Daniel tried to start a fight with in Chinatown was really short and Daniel was twice the size of him," he told police.

"The guy was saying he didn't want to fight and Daniel put his hand out as if to shake it but then punched the guy to the head.

"The punch kinda got him in the side of his neck and not in the face."

It was only the first apology the barber, now 22, would have to make on behalf of his drunken acquaintance that night.

Cole Miller and Nick Pace's night

By this stage, Cole and Nick had been out for hours, hopping around almost half-a-dozen Brisbane bars, but Nick told police neither of them were more than "moderately" drunk.

Their night started at 7pm at Cole's Highgate Hill home, the elite water polo player, set to potentially follow in his older brother's Olympic footsteps, downing "a couple" of cans of bourbon and cola with his best mate.

Nick was dressed in a white short sleeve button up, navy chinos and dark suede shoes, Cole in a long-sleeve white shirt, blue jeans and R.M. Williams boots. They headed into the Valley with their mate Callum about 10pm.

They headed to the Prohibition nightclub early, to get a stamp so they would not have to line up later, before heading on to a few more bars and clubs around the Valley.

By the time the water polo teammates, who trained together almost 10 times a week, headed back to Prohibition it was 3.11am.

Nick told police he remembered the time because he checked his phone and realised it was after "lockout" so they could not get in.

The men chose a yellow seat near Wickham Street to decide whether to go home or try to find somewhere still open but were on the way to get a cab when Maxwell and Renata's group approached.

The attack

"Do you want to see something funny?" Maxwell asked his mates, a comment that would again elevate the tragedy to national headline news.

"Are any of you keen for a clean one-on-one?" Mr Manaia heard him ask Nick and Cole.

The two fit but more slightly built men didn't bite.

"I was thinking to myself are they serious or are they joking," Nick told police.

"I just kept walking and didn't say a word."

What happened next turned four lives upside down and stoked the already passionate debate about late-night violence and trading restrictions in Queensland.

Maxwell punched Cole in the chest, turning his attention to Nick when the diminutive 18-year-old didn't fight back, later offering police the explanation that he was "in the moment".

"We're not looking for trouble, stop," Nick said.

"Cole had a look of shock on his face," he later told police.

"I hadn't seen Cole look like that previously, he looked scared which made me concerned."

As the smaller men backed away, Renata circled around, flooring Mr Miller with one punch he could not have seen coming.

Maxwell saw Renata swing hard, connecting with the side of the 18-year-old's face, knocking him out with a sickening "coward punch" that left him unable to cushion his fall to the hard concrete that would be overflowing with floral tributes days later.

"lt wasn't nice what he had done, it was a blind shot," Maxwell told police.

Cole Miller was unconscious but bleeding, the left side of his face covered in blood as his best mate called triple zero and Mr Manaia tried to help, apologising over and over.

"The impact of punch sounded like it made solid contact and I immediately was concerned because it sounded like it would have done some damage to Cole's face, the sound was like a loud 'pop'," Nick told police.

"... When his face hit the ground it made a very bard sound like when the initial punch from (Renata) hit him in the face."

"... He came around from the back and punched the guy. Punched him hard. It was a blind shot. He probably punched him in the back of the head.

"I'm not sure why he hit h??m."

The aftermath

Chaplains Chris Owens and Sarah Bennett were by Cole's side within 30 seconds, paramedics a few minutes later, but it wasn't enough.

Cole died in hospital on the Monday morning, surrounded by family and friends, his stoic father fronting the media just hours later, voice shaking as he paid tribute to a "beautiful, brave young man with his whole life yet to be lived".

As Cole's frantic family waited on the Sunday morning to see if there was any chance he would pull through, his attackers were at the gym, where a friend who left before the assault heard Renata say he "hooked some guy" the night before.

According to police statements, various friends spent much of the day trying to give police statements before Renata and Maxwell were arrested later that day.

Nineteen months of imprisonment later, Maxwell walked out of the Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday, a free man for a few hours before he was hauled into immigration detention, ready for deportation.

He was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for assault and affray after a surprise plea deal that saw his charge of unlawful striking causing death dropped.

Renata pleaded guilty to unlawful striking causing death but a sentencing date was delayed after he was charged with seriously assaulting two prison guards.