A young couple with name suppression appear in the High Court at Auckland on the first day of their manslaughter trial. They are accused of having caused the death of fellow 18-year-old Connor Boyd. Photo / Dean Purcell
A young couple with name suppression appear in the High Court at Auckland on the first day of their manslaughter trial. They are accused of having caused the death of fellow 18-year-old Connor Boyd. Photo / Dean Purcell
A small courtroom in the High Court of Auckland filled well past capacity today as a large crowd of young people showed up to watch the first evidence in the manslaughter trial of a young couple accused of causing the death of 18-year-old Connor Boyd - allegedly over “pointless teen drama”.
The couple, who continue to have interim name suppression, are accused of having grabbed Boyd’s arm as they sped away from a Britomart nightclub in a Toyota Hilux in the early morning hours of April 24 last year.
Boyd ran to keep up with the vehicle and at one point was able to jump onto the ute’s runnerboard, but he fell to the pavement a short time later and was run over, resulting in his death three days later due to unsurvivable head injuries, Crown prosecutor Claire Paterson told jurors today during her opening address.
They might not have intended to kill Boyd, but their “decisions made in anger had the effect of ending Connor Boyd’s life”, she said.
Lawyers for both of the defendants, who were also 18 at the time, have acknowledged they were both in the Toyota when the fatal injuries occurred but have denied causing Boyd’s death.
“However Mr Boyd came to fall from that vehicle, it was certainly nothing to do with anything [the female defendant] had done,” defence lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade KC told jurors during her opening statement. “She did not hold onto Mr Boyd as has been suggested.
“This was a terrible and tragic accident that occurred.”
Paul Borich KC, who represents the male defendant, acknowledged his client initially grabbed Boyd’s shirt and drove a short distance. But Borich claimed it was to protect passengers in the teen’s vehicle who Boyd was trying to attack. Regardless of the situation, Borich said that wasn’t what caused Boyd’s death.
The Hilux had already slowed down and the defendant had let go of the shirt when Boyd jumped onto the runnerboard and started throwing punches through the window, Borich said.
“Unfortunately, as he attempted to hit [Borich’s client] in the head ... he slipped and fell,” the lawyer said. “The decision to grab the shirt is not what caused this tragedy.”
Connor Boyd, 18, died in April 2022 after he was run over in Central Auckland. Two other teens were charged with manslaughter.
The defence said jurors will have to consider self-defence, putting themselves in the shoes of the defendants and what their mindset would have been that night to determine if the response was justified.
“There are lots of adjectives ... for that night,” Borich said. “Foolish, tragic and unfortunate accident [are some] but not manslaughter.”
But prosecutors had a far different take on what occurred, predicting the three-week trial will be about the “tragic consequences” of a night of festering resentment over “immature teen relationship” drama and “escalating aggression” that culminated in “the angry, split-second decision” to put Boyd’s life at risk.
The vehicle had travelled about 100 metres with Boyd struggling to keep up before falling to the ground, Paterson estimated.
“His head was run over and the Hilux drove on,” she said. “Their anger ... has led directly and pointlessly to his death, and that is manslaughter.
“There was simply no way that either of the defendants was acting in self-defence. In fact, [it was] quite the opposite. Mr Boyd posed absolutely no threat.”
The trial continues before Justice Ian Gault and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
