There was an outburst of applause as a man who claimed he shot and killed another man in self-defence was today found guilty of murder.
After a three-week trial in the High Court at Christchurch, a jury took just over a day to unanimously find James Arthur Holder murdered David Bridgwater in the early hours of January 4 last year.
The verdict was met with little emotion from the 55-year-old, while there was an eruption of applause from the victim’s family sitting in the public gallery.
Bridgwater’s brother Jason was in tears afterwards, telling NZME it had been a long 18 months to get to this stage.
“We lost a brother, lost a son. Two young boys lost their father.
“We’ve been grieving, but we’ve sort of probably closed one door and now we’ve got the next door to get through – it doesn’t finish today. We suffer with it for the rest of our lives.”
He said several family members had come from as far away as Perth and Brisbane to hear the verdict.
“For this [foreperson] to say guilty was just ‘oh yeah’, it was awesome.
“All I hope now is that the justice system works and he gets what he deserves.”
Jason Bridgwater thanked police and the Crown for the work they had done on the case.
Bridgwater and Holder did not know each other but had been partying at Holder’s Christchurch home with mutual friends on the night of the murder.
Bridgwater had been described as behaving obnoxiously at the house and had been asked several times to leave.
The 38-year-old walked out of the property and was followed by Holder.
The court heard that when Bridgwater got into his car and started the engine, an altercation between the men ensued.
Bridgwater was shot about 2.15am.
Holder left the scene, driving to an associate’s home and then to Christchurch’s residential red zone, where it is believed he disposed of the .22 calibre gun, which was never recovered.
Police found a spent .22 cartridge beside Bridgwater’s body.
First responders unsuccessfully tried to revive Bridgwater, and he was pronounced dead about 2.43am.
Several evidential items that had been burned were recovered from the Carisbrooke St property when a search warrant was executed a couple of days later.
In the following weeks, police intercepted Holder’s phone calls, and he was arrested and charged on February 2, 2024.
At trial, the Crown said Holder pulled the trigger in rage, intending to kill Bridgwater when shooting him in the abdomen, and, at the very least, intended to injure him, then left him to die.
It was submitted that Holder knew Bridgwater had been badly hurt or killed when he shot him.
Bridgwater had earlier been partying with others at the Juicy Festival in QEII Park and continued into the early hours, when things took a turn for the worse at the Aranui address where Holder lived with his partner, Leanne Crighton.
Security camera footage from the property showed people yelling and milling about on the property and road, while cars arrived and left, and people assisted Bridgwater.
The Crown said the plan was for Holder to dispose of the gun and for Crighton to get rid of the security camera.
The defence said Bridgwater was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and that he was being “disrespectful, belligerent and dangerous”.
The defence said Holder and Crighton became entangled in a confrontation with Bridgwater outside their house.
The gun went off during the confrontation and the defence submitted that Holder did not realise he had shot Bridgwater.
Holder has repeatedly denied shooting him during a fit of rage, as claimed by the Crown.
Crighton was convicted in early October of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The summary of facts said she was present at the time of the shooting and had returned to the property and asked another woman to help her remove the CCTV camera.
The woman attempted to remove the camera, situated on the soffit of the house.
Crighton held a plastic storage box steady while the woman stood on it and tried to take the camera down.
The attempt only resulted in the angle of the camera being moved, and the camera remained affixed to the house.
Crighton admitted to cancelling her Arlo security camera subscription and deleting the application from her cellphone in an attempt to destroy the video evidence on the day after Bridgwater’s death.
Holder has now been remanded in custody to be sentenced on December 17.
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the past 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.