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 two days.

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.

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 at around 2.30am as he was headed back to the couple’s Ponsonby apartment with the co-defendant and a vehicle full of friends. But he insisted he slowed down and let go before turning from Gore St onto Customs St.

“I was scared that if I [fully] stopped he was going to do something because he was furious that I’d grabbed him,” the male defendant testified.

• Teens accused of fatal hit-and-run in Auckland CBD plead not guilty; victim named
• Teen manslaughter trial: Defendant allegedly attacked another teen on same night

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. Borich also suggested his client was acting in self-defence of himself and others in the car because Boyd had allegedly threatened gang violence during an earlier confrontation that night.

Crown prosecutor Claire Paterson presented a much different interpretation of the CCTV footage last week during cross-examination of the defendants and in her closing address.

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 on to 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. No witnesses testified to having seen her grab Boyd as the car began moving, and she was heard yelling, “Let go!”

“I was freaking out because [the male defendant] is holding on to Connor and it’s clearly not going to end well,” the female defendant testified last week.

Watching the same grainy video, the defence and the Crown had opposite interpretations of what could be seen.

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. Kincade insisted nothing of the sort could be seen. At best, she argued, all that could be seen was the defendant’s arm out the window.

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 due to 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.

“Their anger ... has led directly and pointlessly to his death, and that is manslaughter,” she argued earlier. “Mr Boyd posed absolutely no threat.”

Lawyers for both defendants described Boyd’s death as a “tragedy” but ultimately not their clients’ faults.

Two nights of violence

The violence had actually begun several days earlier when the female defendant approached fellow 18-year-old Ella Olson at the same nightclub and threw a drink on her - an incident that also was caught on CCTV and played for jurors. She pleaded guilty to that assault charge prior to trial.

The flashpoint for the defendant, prosecutors had said, was “pointless teen drama” over a guy Olson had briefly dated. But on the witness stand, the female defendant said her dislike of the victim had been simmering for some time because she felt Olson had “emotionally hurt” her and her friends.

When the defendant saw the same victim at the nightclub on the night of Boyd’s death, she was recorded walking up from behind her and pulling her to the ground by her hair. Later, as the victim was sitting outside the club on the phone with her mother, the defendant allegedly kicked her in the face.

The defendant, who described herself as quite drunk that night after having consumed a bottle and a half of rosé at home, pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial to having assaulted the other teen by pulling her hair. But she denied allegations that she stomped the victim after she had fallen on to her back on the nightclub floor. CCTV footage did not show the floor of the club but the victim testified that it happened. The defendant also denied kicking the victim in the face as she sat on the kerb.

Jurors returned not guilty verdicts for the stomping and face kick assault charges.

Boyd, who knew both the defendants and Olson but had not arrived with either of them, comforted Olson after the final incident with the female co-defendant. A short while later, Boyd also would be assaulted by both co-defendants in a non-fatal confrontation not involving the vehicle.

CCTV footage showed the male defendant punching Boyd and the female defendant pushing him into a large planter box before kicking him in the chest and slapping him. Boyd didn’t retaliate. The male defendant pleaded guilty to one count of assault and the female defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of assault for that encounter.

The defendants claimed that’s when Boyd alluded to gang violence and suggested another friend of theirs deserved a bullet to his head. But they also said they talked it out immediately after their violent outburst and were immediately on friendly terms again.

The final, fatal incident happened a short time later as Olson was leaving the club with friends in a car driven by her mother, who came to pick her up after the attacks by the female defendant. They were driving on Gore St when they saw Boyd and stopped the vehicle to thank him for looking after her.

Around that same time, the defendants pulled on to the opposite side of Gore St as they prepared to go home and Olson’s mother yelled at the female defendant that she was going to report the attack to police this time. CCTV footage showed Boyd casually crossing the street as Olson’s vehicle left, approaching the SUV with the defendants. Moments later, he would be dragged then left fatally injured in the street.

What happened in those moments prior to Boyd’s death remains in dispute. But it’s undisputed the female defendant reached out the window and slapped Boyd - another assault charge for which she has pleaded guilty.

“Control your missus,” she recalled Boyd telling her boyfriend after she lashed out, with her boyfriend grabbing Boyd’s shirt and driving off immediately after.

The male defendant claimed he feared Boyd for the first time that night - prompting him to drive off - when Boyd said at the SUV: “You better watch out, I know where you live.” But prosecutors argued there was no fear - only rage - and jurors seemed to agree.

The jury was tasked with deciding one more charge - one count of failure to stop and render aid, which the male defendant denied. Everyone in the vehicle described feeling a bump as Boyd fell from the vehicle.

The male defendant said he didn’t stop because he still feared Boyd or his friends could hurt him, which his lawyer argued was an extension of his self-defence claim and a reasonable excuse for not stopping.

The female defendant had called 111, telling the operator: “We were just leaving Saturdays and some dude tried to f*** up my boyfriend... He wouldn’t let go. He literally went underneath the car. He was so drunk.”

But prosecutors disputed her insistence that she had quickly called from the Hilux. The call appears to have been made seven minutes later, after they had returned to their Ponsonby flat, Paterson told jurors, suggesting that such a response to running someone over is not reasonable.

Jurors returned a guilty verdict for that charge as well.

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.