Jury finds man who mowed down rival in car guilty of murder

The jury took two hours to find Garath Richard Collings guilty of murder. Photo / Herald

A jury took two hours to find a Christchurch man guilty of murder during the 3.5 seconds in which he mowed down a rival using a car.

The jury retirement, including a lunch break, ended the four-day trial in the High Court at Christchurch before Justice Cameron Mander.

He convicted Garath Richard Collings and remanded him in custody for sentencing on June 1, giving him a first-strike warning before he was ordered to stand down.

Family members and supporters reacted with hugs and sobs in the public seating after sitting through the evidence that including a surveillance video showing the moments when the murder was committed.

Collings, 42, had argued with Robin Friend who was at the driver's window and then accelerated from a stop as he walked in front of the vehicle. The Crown charged him with murder, but the defence said it was a case of manslaughter.

The defence said Collings "was robbed of his good sense in an absolute moment of madness", in their closing address to the jury.

Defence counsel Donald Matthews told the jury that Collings still had to be held to account -- he had offered a plea to manslaughter -- but he had no murderous intent and was not guilty of murder.

He argued that Collings was not dealing rationally, and had no time to think of the consequences in the 3.4 seconds it took for the car to accelerate into Robin Friend as he moved in front of the car, crush him, and crash into a roadside power box and hedge.

The incident in a Parklands cul-de-sac on July 30, 2020, came after an exchange of words at the driver's window of the car, between Friend and Collings, who was sitting in the driver's seat.

Matthews said witnesses in the car said it was "fairly petty, a fairly minor beef, and certainly nothing you would want to kill someone over".

The Crown case suggested there was swearing and a threat by Friend that Collings should "be sure to watch your kids". Collings' daughter had died a few weeks before.

Matthews said the jury might consider that after the threat, Collings had acted instinctively, without thinking in an absolute moment of madness.

Crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore said that in the seconds when Collings ran into Friend, the passengers in the car were screaming for him to stop. They had time to appreciate the danger, but Collings had continued with his course of conduct which could have been stopped at any time.

"This was a focussed, steely, determined act," she said.

There had previously been bad blood between the men, aggravated by a dispute about a woman they both seemed to care about, she said.

The incident was captured on a house security camera and played at the trial several times. Elsmore had it played again during her closing address.

She told the jury: "It could have been stopped at any time, but it didn't stop because the defendant didn't want it to. He wanted to hurt Robin Friend. He wanted to cause injuries so severe they could kill him. He simply wasn't listening as the passengers in the car screamed at him to stop."

Justice Mander thanked the jury, and thanked the counsel for the conduct of their trial. He complimented counsel, Elsmore for the Crown and Matthews for the defence, on their closing addresses to the jury.