“Stay awake … please … just breathe, please.”

These were the words heard on a call to 111 by a man who had just discovered his best friend, Raynor Cribb, had been dragged more than 80m underneath a car.

 “He’s having trouble breathing. I can hear it,” Daeus Taueki can be heard telling the operator.

“I don’t want to touch him - he’s bleeding everywhere.”

Cribb had fallen from the passenger seat of Taueki’s vehicle after a high-speed chase with another car on the outskirts of Levin in the early hours of February 23 last year.

He ended up underneath the Subaru they were chasing. Taueki and another passenger raced to find a car jack, only to come back to find their friend 80m from where they had left him and struggling to breathe.

It’s alleged that the driver of the Subaru, Adam Kapo Henare, a wanted man at the time, drove off deliberately and dragged Cribb to his death before fleeing the scene.

However, Henare says he had no idea the other man was under the wheels of his car and would never have driven off if he had known.

What’s not in dispute is that Cribb was dragged to his death.

The case before the High Court at Palmerston North instead focuses on whether Henare knew Cribb was under his car before he drove away and is therefore guilty of reckless driving causing death.

Both the Crown and Henare’s lawyer agree the tragedy began with two separate groups of people converging in the early hours of the morning, by chance, at a quiet riverside reserve near Levin, roughly half an hour south of Palmerston North.

Henare and a woman, Alicia Ralston, were in a blue Subaru. Cribb and his two mates, Taueki and Angus Rauhihi, were in a grey Honda. Both groups were drinking alcohol.

Ralston, a Levin local, knew the boys in the Honda and felt an escalating tension between them and so Henare suggested they leave.

Both groups were drinking at Gladstone Reserve before crashing on Cambridge St just outside Levin. Photo / Datawrapper

The three men say they saw Henare rummage through their car as they left so quickly jumped in their Honda and gave chase west towards Levin with Taueki driving and Cribb in the passenger seat.

The chase reached speeds of 160km/h and came to an abrupt stop shortly after as they entered a 50km/h area and a sharp right bend on Cambridge St.

The court heard Henare braked hard at the corner with the Honda hot on his heels. Cribb had allegedly taken his seatbelt off and opened the passenger door as they got close to the Subaru.

However, not expecting the sharp braking, Taueki swerved, narrowly avoided hitting Henare and a power pole and mounted the curb before coming to a stop.

At some point during this manoeuvre Cribb fell out of the Honda and ended up under Henare’s Subaru.

It’s at this point that the Crown’s case and Henare’s version of events differ.

Defence lawyer Philip Mitchell told the jury Henare saw the other car drive off after telling him they were going to “f**king get him”.

He then attempted to drive off himself but stopped further down the road after hearing a “doof doof doof” noise coming from his car and thought he had damaged his wheel in the crash.

It was then Mitchell says Henare discovered Cribb was under his vehicle before attempting to dislodge him by slowly moving the car with Ralston standing outside and directing him. Mitchell says Henare then left Cribb on the road.

However, prosecutor Guy Carter said it was the Crown’s case that following the initial crash both sets of occupants exited their vehicles and saw Cribb stuck under the Subaru.

Carter said that Taueki and Rauhihi left to find a car jack to help lift the car off and extract their friend.

The trial is set down for two weeks at the High Court sitting in Palmerston North. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson

But when they came back, Henare was gone and they found Cribb further down the road, barely breathing and having suffered significant trauma from having been dragged along the road.

“He was dragged 84 metres,” Carter said. “He would die minutes later at the scene.”

Carter said that Henare was wanted by police at the time and fled the scene to avoid being caught, driving away despite knowing the other man was trapped underneath his car.

‘I love you man ... please’

Taueki was the first witness to give evidence in Palmerston North this afternoon in front of Justice Paul Radich and a jury of six men and six women.

He said Cribb fell out of the car at some point towards the end of the high-speed chase. Taueki, over the legal alcohol limit at the time, has already pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving at an earlier court hearing.

Taueki said he recalls both cars coming to a stop after narrowly avoiding colliding and hearing Henare say “Your bro’s under the car” after both drivers exited their vehicles.

His evidence was that he and the other passenger, Angus Rauhihi, left to go and find a car jack and returned roughly 10 minutes later to find Cribb further down the road.

“Could hear him trying to breathe, trying to say something,” he told police in an interview a week after Cribb died.

The corner of Cambridge St where the two cars narrowly avoided colliding. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson.

“I told him just to breathe.”

Taueki says Henare told him not to call an ambulance and he and Rauhihi left to find a car jack before turning around realising they shouldn’t have left.

He called an ambulance anyway and can be heard in a recording played to the court that Cribb “jumped out of the car”.

Taueki can be heard sobbing on the phone as he returned to the scene where he expected Cribb to be.

Cribb’s family members wept in the dock as the moment Taueki discovered his friend played out on the recording, with the operator attempting to calm him down.

“I love you man … please,” he can be heard saying.

Henare’s trial continues tomorrow and is set down for two weeks.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.