Darren Couper appeared for sentencing in the High Court at Auckland in June 2024. Photo / Michael Craig
Darren Couper appeared for sentencing in the High Court at Auckland in June 2024. Photo / Michael Craig
Darren Troy Couper was initially charged with the murder of MMA fighter Kevin Hay. He claimed self-defence.
A jury last year found him guilty of wounding, but he’s now pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction.
He will be re-sentenced later this month, with a likely sentence of time served.
An Auckland man who was secretly headed to retrial for the vicious pummelling of a black belt MMA fighter - dishing out an estimated 55 punches and two kicks to the head after the victim had already been fatally stabbed by a co-defendant - has instead pleaded guilty to a reduced charge.
There’s now a strong possibility that North Shore resident Darren Troy Couper will be sentenced to time served, a judge acknowledged yesterday as the 59-year-old returned to the High Court at Auckland 10 months after he was handed a four-year prison sentence.
Police initially charged Couper and co-defendant Peter Robert Greene, 58, with murder following the August 2022 death of MMA fighter and instructor Kevin “Honey Badger” Hay. Both men claimed self-defence after Hay, who was highly intoxicated and had a history of mental health issues, arrived at a Northcote residence and began attacking Couper without provocation.
The charge against Couper was later amended to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after investigators concluded it was the stab wounds from Greene rather than the beating from Couper that resulted in Hay’s death.
In an unusual split decision, the jury acquitted Greene of murder, seeming to agree he had stabbed in defence of his co-defendant. But Couper was found guilty of wounding, a verdict that aligned with the Crown’s argument that the blows - even if they started off as defensive - carried on long after Hay was no longer a threat.
A jury found Darren Couper guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to Kevin Hay. Photo / Michael Craig
CCTV footage of the incident had been played for jurors repeatedly at trial last March, with prosecutors dissecting it second-by-second during their closing address.
Couper was sentenced in June to four years’ imprisonment, with Justice Peter Andrews rejecting his bid for home detention. But in November, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.
That 21-page decision, including the fact that Couper’s conviction had been tossed, was suppressed by the appellate panel to protect Couper’s fair trial rights. His guilty plea this week means there is no longer any fair trial concerns so the decision can be reported for the first time.
Defence lawyer James Olsen had argued on appeal that there was a miscarriage of justice because the trial judge didn’t adequately instruct the jury about self-defence and didn’t offer a definition of “wounding”. The Crown countered that both “self-defence” and “wounding” are common-sense concepts which the jury would have already understood, but the appellate panel sided with the defence on both points.
The panel also agreed with Olsen’s assertion it should have been made clear to jurors that Hay’s past convictions might bolster Couper’s credibility regarding self-defence. It wouldn’t matter whether or not the defendant knew about the convictions, the decision stated.
“The reason for that is, if evidence showed that Mr Hay had a tendency to act very aggressively with little or no provocation, that would have assisted the jury to determine whether Mr Couper’s account of being fearful and desperate was credible,” the panel explained.
The Court of Appeal disagreed with a fourth and final assertion by Couper’s lawyer that jurors should have been allowed to consider family violence charges that were pending against Hay at the time of his death.
An officer stands guard at the scene where Kevin Hay died in August 2022. Photo / Ben Leahy
Couper had faced a sentence of up to 14 years imprisonment at his last sentencing hearing. At his re-sentencing, set to take place later this month, he will now face no more than five years’ imprisonment for a new charge of injuring with intent to injure.
He asked yesterday that his sentencing be expedited. The Crown did not oppose bail in the meantime, noting the defence lawyer’s assertion that he will be seeking a sentence of time served. Justice Mathew Downs agreed that bail was proper given the likelihood - albeit not certainty - of that outcome.
At Couper’s last sentencing, Justice Andrew said he agreed that the blows meted out by Couper were at first justified due to self-defence. But his response morphed into “disproportionate force”, becoming criminal, sometime after Hay was stabbed in the back and stopped fighting back, the judge said.
“You certainly got the upper hand, becoming the aggressor,” he explained, noting that there were about 60 punches in all, along with two kicks to Hay’s head and two stomps on his hand. “Ultimately, gratuitous acts of violence were carried out.”
Couper, who had smoked methamphetamine earlier that night, was also found guilty at trial of aggravated assault on a police officer who said he was eye-gouged by the defendant when authorities showed up to arrest him. That conviction stands.
Victim Kevin Hay was described by partner Laney Murray as a 'softie at heart' who loved to teach martial arts and counsel others who were struggling. Photo / Supplied
Hay, 50, was described by his partner Laney Murray last year as a “softie at heart” who loved sharing his passion for martial arts with others.
A student of Brazil-based combat sport luta livre and catch wrestling, Hay earned a black belt from renowned fighter and coach Babel Sambueza in 2022, becoming the Babel Fight Club’s New Zealand representative.
His Facebook page, with about 70,000 followers, was constantly updated with instructional videos. It also detailed his personal life, including his struggles with anxiety, addiction and recovery.
“He’d unintentionally opened a portal for men and women to have a place to talk, to feel no shame, to reach out,” Murray recalled. “Sometimes Kev would be on the phone till the small hours talking someone down from off the ledge, so to speak. I’d get up, make him a cup of tea and go back to bed.
“I didn’t realise just how many people he counselled until he died and I received calls and messages steadily right through the night from people he’d helped or just listened to ... He was a humble man and a kind man.”
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.
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