Stefan Hannon-McGinn and Ethan Howe have been on trial in the High Court at New Plymouth.
Stefan Hannon-McGinn and Ethan Howe have been on trial in the High Court at New Plymouth.
Loud cheers and applause erupted from the public gallery as guilty verdicts were delivered against two men who murdered a terminally ill man on his doorstep before dragging his body inside and setting fire to the house.
Family and friends of the murdered man, Sidney Ross Bridson, punched theair and shouted “yeah” and “woo hoo” as the jury foreperson sealed the fate of the first defendant, Stefan Hannon-McGinn.
The emotion continued as co-offender Ethan Howe was handed the same outcome on charges of murder and arson.
Soon, the cheers turned to tears as supporters embraced one another.
Hannon-McGinn, 28, and Howe, 27, have been on trial in the High Court at New Plymouth, accused of murdering Bridson, 55, at his home in Waitaanga, east of Taranaki.
On Wednesday, Justice Helen McQueen summed up the case to the jury, which then began its deliberations around 12.30pm.
Jurors were then sent home at 4.30pm before returning yesterday to continue their discussions for the day.
The Waitaanga Rd home of Sidney Ross Bridson before it was destroyed by fire in October 2023.
Deliberations continued today until around 1.30pm, when the jury indicated it had reached its verdicts.
Hannon-McGinn and Howe were brought into the dock to hear the outcome, as whānau and friends of Bridson filled the public gallery, along with police who had worked on the case, local lawyers, and family of Howe.
The jury’s foreperson delivered the unanimous verdicts as the defendants stood motionless and faced forward, their faces slightly flushed.
Justice McQueen thanked the jurors for their service before excusing them.
The public gallery again erupted, clapping for jurors as they left the courtroom.
Convictions were entered for the defendants, who were then remanded into custody ahead of their sentencing on September 1.
Before they were taken away by Corrections staff, Howe turned to face the public gallery and said “Love you, Mum,” to a woman sitting quietly in the front row.
Murder in the ‘Wild West’
During the four-week trial, the jury heard Bridson was shot in the stomach on the deck of his home in the early hours of October 11, 2023, before being dragged inside and his house being set alight.
Hannon-McGinn admitted fatally shooting Bridson, who had terminal cancer, but claimed he acted in self-defence.
He pleaded guilty to arson at the beginning of the trial, while Howe denied both murder, saying he was present but not criminally responsible, and arson.
The jury was told the pair acted at the request of Mathew David Hannon, Hannon-McGinn’s father.
While Hannon was not there when Bridson was shot, he was found to have engineered his death.
At the trial of Hannon-McGinn and Howe, the Crown argued the killing was intentional and carried out in cold blood.
But lawyers for Hannon-McGinn said their client had gone to Bridson’s home to discuss the conflict between his father and Bridson, taking a firearm as a precaution.
They said Hannon-McGinn believed Bridson had reached for a gun, which turned out to be a stick, and fired, interpreting the situation as “kill or be killed”.
The aftermath of the fire at Sidney Ross Bridson's home on Waitaanga Rd. The home of his neighbour, Mathew David Hannon, is the building pictured on the left in the background.
Howe’s lawyers argued he was not a party to the murder, maintaining he had not known his mate was going to shoot Bridson and ran off once Hannon-McGinn did.
They said Howe was not there when Hannon-McGinn set fire to the house.
Tara Shaskey is an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She joined NZME in 2022 and has worked as a journalist since 2014.
