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A young Auckland couple accused of having grabbed 18-year-old pedestrian Connor Boyd as they drove away from a city centre nightclub, causing him to tumble to his death, have both been found guilty of manslaughter.
Jurors reached their verdicts today after roughly eight hours of deliberations that stretched over twodays.
The packed-to-capacity courtroom was silent as the verdicts were read. Boyd’s father, sitting in the front row of the gallery, wiped away tears.
The defendants, who were also 18 at the time, continue to have name suppression. Justice Ian Gault ordered a sentencing date for February.
Boyd was taken off life support after suffering unsurvivable head injuries on the morning of April 24, 2022. He had been clinging to the side of the male defendant’s SUV when he fell into busy Customs St. The horrific tumble - outside Saturdays Britomart nightclub, where the three had earlier crossed paths - was caught on CCTV and played repeatedly over the course of the three-week trial.
Jurors asked to watch the CCTV footage again on Monday afternoon, about two hours into their deliberations. They gathered around a TV screen mounted on the courtroom wall, standing to get a closer look after having watched it previously from across the courtroom.
A young couple with name suppression have both been found guilty of manslaughter over the death of Connor Boyd in 2022. Photo / Dean Purcell
The male defendant acknowledged on the witness stand last week that he had grabbed Boyd through the window of his Toyota Hilux and started driving away about 2.30am as he was headed back to the couple’s Ponsonby apartment with the co-defendant. But he insisted that he slowed down and let go before turning from Gore St into Customs St.
At the point the SUV slowed, defence lawyer Paul Borich, KC, argued, the whole incident could have ended without injury.
But with his ego hurt, Boyd then took the initiative by running alongside the vehicle, jumping on the runner board as the defendant tried to drive off and throwing punches at the driver through the open window, the defence lawyer argued.
Crown prosecutor Claire Paterson presented a much different interpretation of the CCTV footage.
There was no indication in the footage that the male defendant’s SUV ever slowed down as it sharply cut the corner from Gore St into Customs St, leaving Boyd with no viable option for extracting himself from the side of the vehicle safely, she argued. He jumped on the runner board only because he had no other option aside from being dragged, she suggested.
Connor Boyd, 18, died in April 2022 after he was run over in Central Auckland. Two other teens were charged with manslaughter.
She also expressed strong doubts that Boyd threw any punches at all, pointing to video stills in which his arms seemed to be fully extended as he gripped the side of the vehicle. But even if he had thrown a punch at that point, it would have been a justified response as he tried to get the vehicle to stop so he could dismount, she argued.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade, KC, representing the female defendant, said her client never grabbed Boyd at all as the SUV was moving.
Paterson insisted the female defendant’s arm could clearly be seen outside the window, holding on to Boyd from behind in the back passenger seat as her boyfriend held on to him from the driver’s seat.
It may not have been the defendants’ intentions to kill Boyd, but by working together to either assault him or to drive dangerously they are still criminally responsible for his death, Paterson argued.
Jurors unanimously found the male defendant guilty because of his dangerous driving. The group could not reach a unanimous verdict for the female defendant but agreed 11-1 that she should be found guilty due to assault.
Jurors also found the male defendant guilty of failure to stop and render aid and acquitted the female defendant of two assault charges involving another victim who she had attacked twice that week at the same nightclub.
The female defendant had pleaded guilty to numerous other assault charges prior to trial, including an incident in which she threw her drink on the second victim and another incident in which she pulled the same girl to the ground by her hair. She also pleaded guilty to four counts of assault on Boyd that night, including pushing him into a large planter, kicking him and twice slapping him. The male defendant pleaded guilty to one count of assault for punching Boyd prior to the dragging incident.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
