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A 16-year-old boy was an innocent bystander when he was shot dead at a 15-year-old girl’s birthday party, a jury has heard.
Connor Whitehead, 16, died from gunshot wounds after attending a 15th birthday party and fireworks in the northern Christchurch suburb of Casebrook on November 5, 2021.
Two men, Daniel Nelson Sparks and Joshua David Craig Smith, are charged with murdering Whitehead.
On Monday, a three-week jury trial began in the High Court at Christchurch before Justice Melanie Harland. The pair pleaded not guilty to the charges before the trial began.
Crown prosecutor Aaron Harvey began the trial before six men and six women by opening the Crown’s case against the pair.
He said there were parental concerns about the party being too big and with those fears being realised.
"The worse case scenario occurred, too many young people attended, younger ones drank too much, older men made their way and caused problems, fights were started."
Things got so bad Sparks’ son called him asking for help.
The Crown alleges both men received that call by arming themselves with loaded firearms - a Stevens shotgun and a Mossberg shotgun in Smith’s VW Golf.
At the address were Sparks’ two children, one of whom was having their 15th birthday party. Smith is a friend and associate of Sparks, and was not related at all to the occupants.
The girl turned 15 on October 27 and asked her mother if she could have a party, saying up to 100 people might come. Her mother said no, fearing it was too many people to have.
After thinking about it she relented, but said there were several conditions, including the party could only be her friends and that it could not be posted about on social media.
The party took place, however as commonly happened friends invited other friends and things ended up getting out of control.
Most of the attendees were around 15 or 16, such as Whitehead, who was invited to the party. However, some slightly older people arrived too, the exact number of guests is not known, but appeared to be "certainly well over 50, perhaps more than 100," Harvey said.
There was some evidence of young men arriving who were described as wearing blue who may perhaps have some association with the Crips gang.
There was evidence that some of those group had been going around the party causing trouble, hitting or assaulting some attendees who had to go inside the house to tend to minor injuries.
At some stage during the evening both of Spark’s children were targeted. Spark’s son then called his father from a bedroom on his mum’s phone and asked him to come and assist about 10.49pm.
He stayed on the phone until the two men arrived.
Sparks’ son told his father there were people in a gang at the address and they were "scaring him", Harvey said.
"He thought they were planning to hurt him and asked him to come and scare them."
Sparks allegedly asked his son whether the group had any weapons, he replied they were just kids and did not have any weapons.
Harvey said Sparks’ son hoped by calling his father he would be able to arrive and the crowd would disperse.
About 11pm they arrived at the party. Sparks’ son pointed out the group of people acting aggressively towards him. Sparks approached him and there was a verbal argument, gang signs were pulled and there was yelling.
The argument became heated and partygoers crowded the area.
At this stage, Whitehead was standing in the driveway alongside friends and partygoers.
The Crown case is there were two shots fired, one by each of the firearms, one by each of the defendants.
The two shots were about six seconds apart. The Crown says the most likely scenario is that Smith fired the fatal shot that struck Whitehead, and that Sparks fired a shot from the Mossberg into the air, likely from the car.
Whitehead was shot in the chest and killed, his injuries not survivable.
There was no suggestion Whitehead was at all involved in the disorder, and was standing between 9 to 12 metres away when the firearm was discharged at him.
The exact sequence of events would be an important issue for the trial, Harvey said with witnesses to give accounts that will not always match.
At some point in the trial a bottle, or bottles were thrown, one smashing the driver’s door of the VW.
After the second shot was fired the two men left the scene.
Following the fatal shooting police used emergency powers to intercept calls. A few hours after the shooting a call was intercepted between Sparks, Smith and an associate.
Smith said he had a run in with the Crips with 30 or 40 of them came out of nowhere and surrounded them. Shots were fired, and someone may have been shot.
On November 6, Smith called police to report his car stolen, and said it had been taken from the driveway.
On November 7, police went to an address where they noticed smoke coming from the chimney. Cordoned off the address and appealed for Smith to co-operate, he was found hiding in a bonnet parked in a garage. A search of the fireplace located items of interest including clothing, fabric and other material.
Sparks was found two days later.
He told police "I know I’m in trouble, I’m happy to talk to you".
Harvey said during the trial the jury will hear the audio interview with Smith and video interview with Sparks.
In his interview Smith said he did not fire any shots. While Sparks said he got out of the car and while out of the car heard a shot being fired. After he heard the shot being fired he got his firearm and fired a shot in the air before they left.
The firearms were found in the Bottle Lake Forest.
Harvey said both men could be found guilty of murder, regardless of who fired the fatal shot.
Smith’s lawyer Daniel Kirby said Whitehead was "totally innocent."
"His killing was shocking, senseless, and should never have happened."
He said Smith accepted it was his fault, and that he was responsible for Whitehead’s death.
However, he said his client was guilty of manslaughter, not murder.
"Mr Smith never intended to kill Connor. He never intended to cause Connor bodily harm, and he never thought that Connor or anyone else would be likely to die."
He said Smith did lie in his police interview from his hospital bed, but that just because he lied did not mean he was a murderer.
Sparks’ lawyer Nicola Pointer said he was not guilty of murder. He did not fire the fatal shot, and he had no idea things would unfold the way they did, she said.
"What occurred went well beyond any common purpose that could’ve existed between the men when they travelled to the party."
Sparks said he got a distressed call from his son asking for help.
He heard a gunshot, quickly returned to the car, and grabbed the Mossberg discharging a round into the air to scatter the crowd forming so they could leave.