A man sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Tauranga man has had his conviction quashed.

Witeri Ahomiro Neketai was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 14 years in 2013 after being found guilty at trial for killing business man Gary Kimura in 2011.

Witeri Neketai in the dock at the High Court in Rotorua when he was sentenced on October 18, 2013.

Kimura died on his birthday on November 16, 2011, around six weeks after he was knocked unconscious outside his Margaret Road home by Neketai.

The attack was over a $35,000 debt owed to prisoner Joseph Rewiri, who is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for manslaughter.

Rewiri is serving the sentence alongside the life sentence he received in 2008 for the murder of Rotorua man Peter Franklyn, shot dead in 2006.

In court last year, Judge Brewer heard how Rewiri was looking for a way of getting his daughter some money to pay for her to go into medicine or law, when another prisoner mentioned a drug debt owed by the deceased.

The convicted killer took the opportunity to get a share of the debt and enlisted the help of Neketai.

On October 5, Neketai and Tauranga man, Taonui Hiku, 27, went to Gary Kimura's home in Margaret Road where Neketai used Hiku to lure him outside before punching him in the face.

The blow sent Gary stumbling backwards onto the concrete where he cracked his head.

The 44-year-old owner of Gary's Tyres in Sulphur Point was transported first to Tauranga Hospital, then onto Waikato Hospital, before being transferred back to Tauranga Hospital where he later died.

Earlier this year, Neketai revealed he was applying to the Court of Appeal to have his murder conviction overturned.

The Court of Appeal has found that there was no evidence Neketai knew his actions were likely to cause death, and that the proper verdict was manslaughter, reports Fairfax.

The Court of Appeal has instructed that Neketai be re-sentenced on a manslaughter charge in the High Court at a date yet to be set.