Once again, the courtroom resounded with the desolate cries of a man who had just found his best friend’s lifeless body in the depths of a gutter, marking the second devastating discovery in a week. Daeus Taueki’s gut-wrenching 111 call, where he described coming upon his friend Raynor Cribb, pinned under a car and fighting for his last breaths, left a profound impression on the jury. Cribb succumbed to his injuries a mere few minutes after medical aid arrived on the scene.
This sobering tragedy resulted in the court’s conviction of Adam Henare, a recalcitrant 42-year-old, for causing Cribb’s death through reckless driving, which involved him deliberately dragging Cribb for 84 metres under his Subaru on a cold early February morning the previous year. Henare was a fugitive from the law at the time, having absconded after removing his electronic ankle monitoring device.
The chain of events leading to Cribb’s untimely death began with a dispute involving Cribb, Taueki, their friend Angus Nuku-Rauhihi, Henare, and Henare’s companion, Alicia Ralston. Following this altercation, chaos ensued when Cribb, Taueki, and Nuku-Rauhihi, inside Taueki’s Honda, witnessed Henare rummage through their vehicle. A pursuit began that peaked at shocking speeds of up to 160 km/h on back roads.
In the ensuing chase, Cribb exited the Honda and was gruesomely run over by the Subaru. Henare then drove an additional 80m with Cribb trapped underneath the car. The jury affirmed that Henare was aware of Cribb’s horrifying plight and deliberately chose to evade the scene.
The legal battle, unfolding over the course of last week, centered on two pivotal stops, as summarized by Henare’s defense attorney, Phil Mitchell. The first stop marked where Cribb fell from the Honda, narrowly missing a collision with the Subaru. The second stop, 80m further along the road, was where Cribb was dragged and eventually met his tragic end.
Additional details emerged during the trial suggesting that Henare exited his car at the first stop, ready for a confrontation. However, as the three young men drove off, Henare returned to his car, noted its unusual operation, and suspected a damaged wheel. When stopping at the second location, he found Cribb situated just behind the front passenger wheel.
Subsequently, Henare recounted how he and his passenger managed to move the car off Cribb with the young men’s absence. Upon their return, they found Cribb seriously injured and abandoned in a roadside gutter. However, opposing testimonies claimed the discovery of Cribb under the car occurred at the first stop, adding to the confusion and uncertainty around the exact sequence of events.
The defense sought to undermine the credibility of the young men’s testimonies, citing inconsistent statements and their elevated emotional state. Mitchell denounced Taueki’s contradictory claims, stating, “His lies are littered like confetti at a wedding.”
The prosecution, on the other hand, relied heavily on security footage from a nearby building and Taueki’s chilling 111 call in their quest to establish a timeline of events. The defendant, they argued, left the scene not out of fear but in evasion of law enforcement.
The trial’s conclusion hinged on the jury’s assessment of the evidence, veering between notion of cause and causation – whether Cribb’s death resulted from the initial impact or the extended dragging – and the downright refusal to apply common sense. Carter highlighted the incoherence in Henare’s claims, asserting “That story makes no sense. That’s not how people behave.”
After revisiting crucial pieces of evidence, the jury panel of twelve reached a unanimous verdict yesterday afternoon, inflicting profound closure upon the tormenting chronicle of a bitter end for a young man and a supposed evasion of justice.
