A possible case of swine flu has halted the last phase of a hearing about a shotgun blast being fired at a car in central Christchurch more than a year ago.
The 18-year-old accused of being the driver of the car, Casey Aaron Mike Gathergood, was meant to appear today
at a disputed facts hearing before Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan.
Instead, he was at the doctor and the Crown reluctantly agreed to accept the situation and had the case remanded for another hearing in about four weeks without an arrest warrant being issued.
The incident took place on July 20, 2008, after an altercation between two cars travelling in the city late at night.
Gathergood and his friend, Jacob Oscar Murray, drove to a property at Rolleston where the firearms from a burglary had been hidden.
They then returned to the city and got involved in an altercation with a different car. The Crown says Gathergood stopped the car at an angle so that Murray could fire at the car behind them with a shotgun, a blast that struck the front of the car and caused $2462 damage but no physical injuries.
The occupants in the following car suffered financially and emotionally, including having nightmares and anxiety.
Gathergood has admitted his involvement but says his part was less than Murray's - a teenager now serving a jail term.
The judge was told today the hearing on September 11 would focus on whether Gathergood deliberately stopped the car at an angle so that the shot could be fired, and whether there had been an earlier conversation in which Gathergood tried to get the other youth to abandon the idea and leave the city.
At Murray's sentencing, where he was jailed for three years four months, his actions were likened to gangland Chicago by the judge.
- NZPA
