Adam Henare denies deliberately dragging Raynor Cribb to his death

Raynor Cribb died after being dragged underneath a car for roughly 80m. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson

A man accused of deliberately dragging another man 84 metres to his death said he would never have driven his car if he knew the victim was stuck underneath it.

“I ain’t a murderer,” Adam Henare, 42, told police during an interview months after Raynor Cribb, 27, was found dead on the side of the road on the outskirts of Levin.

It’s not disputed that Cribb was dragged to his death in the early hours of February 23 last year.

The case before the High Court at Palmerston North instead focuses on whether Henare knew Cribb was under his car before he drove away and is therefore guilty of reckless driving causing death.

Cribb died shortly after an altercation occurred between him, his two friends and Henare at a reserve near Levin.

He and Angus Nuku-Rauhihi were passengers in their friend Daeus Taueki’s Honda. Henare and his friend, Alicia Ralston, were in his Subaru when the men in the Honda, drunk at the time, started chasing Henare following the altercation.

The vehicles reached speeds of up to 160km/h before coming to an abrupt stop when they both attempted to take a sharp right-hand bend onto Cambridge St.

An indication of the distance Cribb was dragged. Photo / Google Earth

The Honda swerved to avoid the quickly-braking Subaru and, at some point during the manoeuvre, Cribb took off his seatbelt, opened his door and fell out of the car and under the Subaru.

Henare drove a further 84 metres with Cribb stuck underneath his vehicle.

The Crown allege Henare knew Cribb was there and drove anyway. He died shortly after emergency services arrived.

Yesterday, on day four of the trial, Henare’s police interview was played to the jury.

In it, he said he never would have deliberately dragged Cribb.

Henare told police that after both vehicles failed to take the corner and skidded out, he got out of his car and took off his shirt ready for a fight with the occupants of the other car. But he said they drove off.

He got back into his Subaru and as he drove off it made a “doof, doof, doof” sound.

“Straight away I think my front left wheel has hit the curb and buckled it. So I stopped down the road a bit more,” Henare told police.

“When I stopped to look at my buckled wheel, they’ve [Taueki and Nuku-Rauhihi] come flying up next to me.

“They stop, they go to me ‘where the f***’s our bro?’.”

Henare told police his friend Ralston then began screaming.

“I look on the ground and there’s a body lying there,” he said.

“There’s no movement, no nothing at all.”

In the video evidence, Henare got out of his chair and used it to indicate where Cribb’s body was stuck under the vehicle.

“Half his body is out here, the other half is underneath, from the front wheel,” he said, using the seat as reference.

Henare was adamant he did not know Cribb was under his car, saying he would have pulled him out if he knew.

“There’s no way I would have dragged him on purpose. I’m not that sort of person.”

He said Ralston helped him manoeuvre the car off Cribb before they drove off, leaving him on the road.

Henare said he did not check to see if Cribb was still alive.

“I was worried about his mates coming back, and I was on the run from you guys,” Henare said, pointing to the police interviewing him.

“The worst thing I’ve done is leave … but there was nothing I could have done.”

Pathologist Dr Kate White took the stand yesterday to give evidence about the injuries to Cribb and how they contributed to his death.

In what she referred to as three sub-events, White said Cribb was injured when he fell from the car, when he was run over by the Subaru and then when he was dragged by it.

He suffered abrasions over most of his body, dislocated and fractured bones, a brain bleed and multiple internal injuries.

White was unable to conclusively say whether it was the dragging that specifically killed Cribb or the combination of blunt-force trauma he sustained across the three consecutive events.

The trial continues next week.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.