One of two young escapers from a Child Youth and Family supervised bush camp in the backblocks of Ruatoki, who led police on a terrifying car chase, has had a charge of attempted murder against him dropped.
He was the driver of the stolen late model Ford Falcon and thus considered a party to the alleged shooting at police by his co-accused.
After hearing lengthy legal argument during a break at the youths' High Court trial in Rotorua, Justice Raynor Asher ruled yesterday that the attempted murder count should not go to jury deliberation because the evidence was not strong enough.
The other 15-year-old - both youths were 14 last June when the drama took place at Mt Maunganui - still awaits a verdict on attempted murder. He has already pleaded guilty to three firearms charges.
Nor is the car driver off the hook - his guilt or innocence on three counts of aggravated assault and one of aggravated burglary should be determined today.
Video interviews with police shown to the court yesterday gave an impression of two scared boys who fled the camp under cover of darkness because they "'couldn't handle it".
They broke into an unoccupied property further down the Ruatoki Valley, made a feed of rice risotto, tried to have a sleep lying under the beds, then made off with a handful of guns after breaking a cabinet lock.
The pair told police they knew little about guns. One said he thought a .22 was "a little handgun".
He picked a slug gun and used it for "shooting cows" as they trekked along with one stolen horse between them.
Once the horse was swapped for the car, the passenger tried loading a rifle.
The youth said he was "freaking out" during the high speed police pursuit. They didn't stop because they did not want to go to jail.
The first shot went off in the car "because I didn't know how to work it [the gun]." Another shattered the back window of the Falcon. He was trying to shoot out the tyres of the following patrol car, not hit the occupants.
For the car driver, lawyer Craig Horsley said the minute the passenger climbed into the back seat his actions were his alone.
Tony Balme, representing the passenger, said the Crown had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that his client pulled the trigger of the gun pointed in the direction of Constable James Muir.
The judge will sum up this morning and the jury of seven women and five men will then retire to consider their verdicts.
- NZPA