"No, absolutely not," she responded. "There was not even one chance of a brake."
Prosecutors said yesterday as the trial began that Youn, 28, had gotten into the van with Teo voluntarily that night and they had smoked methamphetamine together. But suspecting that Youn was holding out on him with secreted drugs, the defendant began patting him down and acting so menacing towards the acquaintance that Youn unbuckled his seatbelt and decided his best option was to exit a swiftly moving vehicle, they contended.
Youn died several weeks later.
Teo, who has two standby lawyers in the courtroom but has chosen to represent himself, folded his arms in front of him today as he delivered a brief opening address and cross-examined witnesses.
"I had to try to learn myself how to represent myself," he said, describing the prosecution of him as "unlawful". "I would like the jury to judge the case fairly and according to the rules of laws of New Zealand and the United Nations.
"I'm trying to keep my defence as easy as possible for you guys to understand and bring to light what has been unlawfully carried out. I wish us all the best and may justice prevail."
He asked Kumar, who works at Starship hospital, if she ever saw the driver of the van that night. She said she did not. He also asked her to clarify how the stranger was ejected from the vehicle.
"Did he come out or was he thrown out, because it's two different things?" the defendant said.
"I obviously can't see what's unfolding inside the vehicle ... so I can't verify," she said, explaining that the vehicle's windows were tinted.
After witnessing the ejection, Kumar said she drove past the man, who was lying in the street near a bus stop, and pulled over to call emergency responders before offering assistance.
"He was going in and out of consciousness at that point ... saying a few words and mumbling," she said. "I tapped him on the shoulder a little bit."
"Hey, hey, can you hear me?" she recalled asking him.
"Yeah, I'm good," she said he responded as he opened his eyes.
But it was obvious he wasn't good because he had landed head-first, she said.
The witnesses' husband, who had been in the passenger seat preparing to text his mother, gave a similar account of what happened.
"All I saw [was] he was diving towards the concrete while the van was moving, head-first, and he didn't use his hands or anything to support him," Roheen Kumar recalled.
First responders to the scene described Youn as having a low level of consciousness and rambling incoherently as they arrived.
"He was able to talk to us, however he was quite confused," paramedic Sofie Heaphy testified, explaining that he couldn't recall his name or address. "We asked him multiple times what happened.
"He couldn't tell us any of that information at all."
Constable Adam Bougen also recalled asking the man what happened as he travelled with him to Middlemore Hospital
The man did speak but his eyes were "rolling around in his head" and his words seemed to fluctuate between English "and some form of foreign dialect", the officer said, adding that he never got a coherent answer.
