KEY POINTS:
A man who drove into a crowd, killing two people, did so deliberately, the High Court at Auckland has heard.
Darin Gardner faces two charges of murdering Kane Wright, 19, and student teacher Melissa Viall, 23, in Pakuranga on October 8 last year.
He also faces two charges of intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and injuring with intent.
Two co-accused, Anton Degraaff and James Rixon, face two charges each of injuring with intent.
In his opening address, crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins told the jury that police had interviewed Gardner at 11.30am on October 8 - eight hours after the incident on Pakuranga Rd in which two people were killed and two injured.
The video of the interview will be screened to the jury later in the trial.
In it, Mr Perkins said, Gardner had told police he drank eight to nine bottles of beer in a nearby pub over three to four hours before the incident.
After leaving the pub, Gardner and Degraaff were involved in an altercation with a group of men at the nearby Caltex station forecourt.
The pair ran. Gardner got away, but the group caught up with Degraaff and was beating him.
Mr Perkins said Gardner had acknowledged he got into his car and drove into the crowd to try to disperse them.
He acknowledged "clipping" two to three people, and admitted hitting Ms Viall on a return run. Gardner also admitted driving away from the scene.
He said in the interview it was not his intention to "nail people", and described himself as being "angry, furious, not thinking, pumped up" at the time.
In considering the murder charges, Mr Perkins told the jury there were two possible motives.
The first was an "angry, aggressive retaliation" to his friend being attacked, and the second was that Gardner was defending his friend.
"There is no possibility that anyone could view the force used by Mr Gardner as reasonable."
Gardner's lawyer, Gary Gottlieb, said there was no dispute that his client was behind the wheel.
He had driven through the crowd the first time to disperse them, and driven back a second time to collect his friend.
He accepted that his actions were "reckless and misguided".
"But instead of being a murderer, Darin Gardner is a good young man who, with the best of intentions, made a snap decision that so tragically ended in the death of two people."
The trial is set for three weeks, and more than 50 witnesses are expected to be called.
