“The defendants then left the scene with Mr Whorrall’s wallet … leaving him crumpled on the bench of the bus stop, dying from a catastrophic and ultimately fatal injury.”Whorrall also suffered multiple radiating skull fractures and had some defence injuries to his forearms. He was still breathing as emergency responders arrived at the Meadowbank bus stop around 10.10 pm. But it was immediately clear that the injuries were not survivable, jurors are expected to hear. Even though only one person could have inflicted the fatal blow, prosecutors allege all four defendants, now between the ages of 18 and 19, are guilty because of their joint plan to commit a robbery. They would have known that doing so with a machete might well result in death, it is alleged. But lawyers for all four remaining defendants emphasised in their brief addresses that determining their clients’ state of mind won’t be so easy. Kyle Whorrall, the 33-year-old US student killed at an Auckland bus stop in Meadowbank in April 2025. Photo / Supplied“We have 18 months of detective work, but on day 1 of the trial the Crown cannot tell you who did what and who used the machete,” defence lawyer Paul Borich, KC, told jurors during his opening address, suggesting that determining those facts are critical before assessing each teen’s state of mind.Borich, who represents N, suggested the teen who has already pleaded guilty was the one who inflicted the fatal blow. “He is your murderer,” the lawyer said of K. “He was violent and unpredictable.”The Crown, however, said the guilty plea only served as proof that a murder occurred. It does not show who played what role, Veikune said. Whorrall, who was in the last stages of obtaining his doctorate degree in entomology at the University of Auckland, appeared to be on “a snack run of sorts” that night as he picked up salami, marshmallows, Pepsi and some savoury items at a nearby Woolworths. Police investigate the scene in Meadowbank, Auckland, where American PhD student Kyle Whorrall was killed at a bus stop. Photo / Alex BurtonThe defendants, meanwhile, were at a nearby petrol station as Whorrall started to walk home with his full grocery bag. It’s not known why he decided to stop partway and sit down at the bus stop, Veikune said. The incident was witnessed by a young motorist who had just watched a Warriors game and was trying to get home before his 10pm curfew. He was able to point out that the SUV the attackers emerged from had a broken headlight – described by prosecutors as the critical first break for detectives.After scouring area CCTV, they were able to trace the SUV back to N, the first teen who was arrested. Eventually, the other defendants were identified through CCTV and messaging, prosecutors said. Of the five teens, three had a history of robbing people using knives, Veikune noted. In the month leading up to the homicide, N and U had been involved in four incidents involving machetes. U was also part of a dairy robbery in Manurewa in which U hit a passerby with a machete, “cutting him almost to the bone”, Veikune said. K, the teen who pleaded guilty, also “has shown similar tendencies over a longer period of time”, the prosecutor said, noting seven similar offences involving armed robberies between 2021 and 2025. On several occasions, he brandished a kitchen knife while an associate wielded a meat cleaver. On another, he stabbed a petrol station clerk repeatedly with a screwdriver, jurors were told. Each defence lawyer urged jurors not to assume their client must be guilty based on past offences. Borich described the previous cases as “totally unrelated”.“Hopefully … you will simply not convict [N of murder] because you do not like him for those things,” he said. “Remember, as much as you may dislike him for those things, those are other matters. He’s not on trial for those matters.”Whorrall’s mother, who travelled from the United States to attend the trial, briefly wept in the courtroom gallery as defence lawyer Oscar Hintze gave his brief statement on behalf of B. “Nobody on this side of the court disputes that Kyle died a terrible and senseless death, or that whoever caused it did a grave wrong,” he said, explaining that he wanted to acknowledge the family’s grief. But wrongly convicting his client wouldn’t bring them justice, he suggested, adding that his client’s “mere presence is not enough” to find him guilty of murder.“Kyle’s family deserves justice,” he said. “So does Mr [B].” The trial is set to continue tomorrow before Justice Simon Mount and the jury. 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.
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