Two men have been found guilty of the manslaughter of 16-year-old Connor Whitehead.
Whitehead's family were in tears as they sat in Christchurch High Court's public gallery after the jury delivered the verdict that the pair were not guilty of murder but rather manslaughter.
Whitehead was shot dead while attending a party in Christchurch on November 5, 2021.
Over 50 witnesses gave evidence during the past two weeks in the jury trial at Christchurch's High Court.
On Wednesday Joshua David Craig Smith, 33, and Daniel Nelson Sparks, 44, were found guilty of manslaughter.
The crime all unfolded in four minutes and 44 seconds, the Crown alleged.
The duo were answering a call of distress from Sparks' son who was at a 15th birthday party that had spiralled out of control, becoming overrun with gatecrashers, allegedly including members of the Neighbourhood Crips (NHC) gang.
Armed with a Mossberg pump-action shotgun and sawn-off Stevens shotgun, the pair drove to the party in the northern Christchurch suburb of Casebrook, arriving at around 11pm.
Crown Prosecutor Aaron Harvey said Sparks' son pointed out a group of people acting aggressively towards him. Sparks approached them and there was a heated argument with gang signs and yelling.
Two shots were then fired, one by each of the defendants, just six seconds apart.
Smith's shot hit Whitehead, an innocent bystander, in the chest, killing him.
"I remember he was just lying on the ground, blood coming from his nose and his mouth," a witness told the jury.
Constable Hamish Marriott was one of the first responders and was called to give evidence.
"Each time I'd stop the CPR I'd look at him again and then I was realising he was a whole lot younger each time," Const Marriott told the court.
"He was just a child."
The two men fled the scene and went into hiding before Police found them a few days later.
The guns were found at Bottle Lake Forest.
During the trial, the defence said Smith was guilty of manslaughter, not murder.
"Mr Smith never intended to kill Connor. Mr Smith never intended to cause Connor harm, and he never thought that Connor or anyone else would be likely to die," Smith's lawyer James Rapley KC said.
Sparks' defence said he's not guilty of murder, that he fired a gun into the air to scatter the crowd so he and Smith could leave the area, and had no idea things would unfold the way they did.
But the Crown alleged that both Smith and Sparks were guilty of murder. It alleged the duo knew death could have occurred from them bringing loaded shotguns to a party.
The Crown claims Smith could be guilty of murder in three different ways: intending to kill or cause bodily harm, intending to cause him bodily harm and knowing that firing a gun was likely to cause death, or shooting the gun with the objective of threatening to cause harm, knowing that someone could die.
Each day of the trial, Whitehead's family came to court to sit in the public gallery.
In a joint statement to media after his death, the family remembered Whitehead as "kind, talented and deeply loyal".
"Connor was dearly loved and his passing has left a huge hole in our lives. He was a kind, talented and deeply loyal young man who had such a bright future ahead of him."
