Boy Taylor broke bottles, ‘threatened’ men before fatal beating in Napier, court hears

Police at the scene in Emerson St, Napier, where Boy Taylor (inset) was attacked and died. Photos / Doug Laing / Supplied

A man accused of murdering Boy Taylor says the street dweller smashed bottles and made threats before the fracas in Napier that killed him.

A jury in the High Court at Napier has been hearing evidence and reviewing video footage of the attack on Taylor, who died in the Napier central business district in the week before Christmas 2024.

Four men who came upon Taylor after a night out – Tuarima Issac Alexander, 22, Rua Waka Hune, 34, Takarangi Kumar, 19, and Trizarn Henare, 20 – have been charged with his murder.

They have denied the murder charges but have all pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The jury has been shown a video of the four defendants punching and kicking Taylor and strewing his belongings on the ground during the early morning attack in Emerson St on December 18, 2024.

The four men accused of the murder of Boy Taylor behind a glass barrier during an earlier hearing in the High Court at Napier. They are Trizarn Henare (left), Rua Hune, Tuarima Alexander and Takarangi Kumar. Photo / Ric Stevens

Shop security camera captured attack

The video was taken from a security camera inside an optometrist’s shop on the other side of the street and lasts more than two minutes.

It shows the four-on-one attack continuing after Taylor has been knocked to the ground. At times he is forced into a corner as the four men come at him.

The video also has a soundtrack that recorded three crashes, which sound like breaking glass, just before the assault began.

Henare, in a video interview with police that was played to the court, said Taylor grabbed two bottles and smashed them as the group, who had been drinking, walked towards him on the street.

One of the bottles was thrown towards the group.

“He smashed the bottles in the first place,” Henare said.

He also said Taylor threatened the group and was “looking at us like he wants to stab us”.

Boy Taylor died in the week before Christmas 2024.

“He instigated the whole thing,” Henare said.

“That fella shouldn’t have done that. We would have left him alone [if he hadn’t].”

He described Taylor as “mentally ill”.

Taylor, one of 10 siblings, was 58 when he died and weighed 62kg.

Victim living on the streets

He suffered from mental health issues, had battled addiction and was living mainly on the streets at the time of the assault.

He was declared dead at the scene by a paramedic after a passer-by found him and called 111.

A cyclist rode past him earlier but had not stopped or investigated because he thought he was passing a homeless man sleeping on the street.

An autopsy found Taylor had multiple skull fractures.

Taylor’s movements through Napier that night and into the early hours, pushing his possessions in a shopping trolley, were captured by CCTV cameras.

So were the movements of the four defendants, who spent time drinking at a bar earlier in the evening.

Henare said they were “intoxicated after a good night”.

Members of the group who attacked Taylor were injured in the fracas.

Police said that they followed a trail of blood spots from where Taylor lay for about 500m, taking swabs of them at regular intervals.

Those swabs were never tested as the police found the people they were looking for by other means.

At the start of the trial, Justice David Boldt said the question for the jury was whether the four were guilty of manslaughter or murder.

The Crown would have to establish that they each intended to kill Taylor, or that they knew the assault was likely to kill him and they were prepared to take that risk.

The trial is being heard by Justice David Boldt and a jury. Photo / George Heard

The evidence in the trial, which had been set down in the Napier court for a fortnight, concluded on Friday after five days.

On Tuesday, the Crown and defence counsel for all the accused will make closing statements before Justice Boldt sums up the case.

The jury of nine men and three women will then retire to consider their verdicts.

In addition to the murder charges, the four men have pleaded not guilty to injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to another man, who was assaulted earlier the same night.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.