{"id":53302,"date":"2025-10-01T02:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T02:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/53302\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T02:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T02:33:07","slug":"anaru-moana-murder-trial-defence-says-crown-cant-prove-a-gun-was-used-in-retribution-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/53302\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaru Moana murder trial: Defence says Crown can\u2019t prove a gun was used in retribution killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Burt and Boden are also charged with kidnapping and injuring with intent. <\/p>\n

The trial before a jury and Justice Christine Gordon began yesterday and is scheduled to take up to eight weeks.<\/p>\n

A fifth person, Joseph Cropley, is charged with kidnapping and injuring with intent regarding an alleged attack on another associate, and has also pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

\"JosephJoseph Cropley was also charged with kidnapping and injuring with intent. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n

After Moana\u2019s mother died on December 20, 2021, Korina Boyes picked Moana up and drove him to Kelceys Bush, near Waimate, on the pretence of walking Boyes\u2019 dog together, the court has heard. <\/p>\n

There, Burt and Boden were lying in wait, the Crown alleges.<\/p>\n

They say when Korina Boyes drove Moana to the bush, Burt and Boden were waiting to hand out his punishment. Months earlier, Moana and an associate had allegedly stolen meth and cash totalling about $60,000 from a car belonging to Burt in Oamaru.<\/p>\n

The court heard how Moana\u2019s associate was \u201cbattered\u201d two months earlier after a group of men, including Boden and Cropley, attacked him over the theft, dragging him into a car before dropping him in a gravel pit outside of Oamaru.<\/p>\n

The prosecution then shifted to Moana, who had evaded Burt and Boden for more than two months.<\/p>\n

Today, one of the men\u2019s lawyers said his client accepted he was involved in an unlawful act that led to Moana\u2019s death in Kelceys Bush, but there was no murderous intention to kill Moana.<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Boden is on trial accused of murder. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n

Another lawyer told the jury \u201cnot every death is a murder\u201d and the Crown would have to prove there was an intention to kill Moana by assaulting him, an intention which all defendants deny. <\/p>\n

It was agreed a firearm was brought into the bush, but lawyers said the Crown couldn\u2019t prove a gun was used to kill Moana. <\/p>\n

\"HaydenHayden Burt denies murdering Anaru Moana. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n

Korina Boyes\u2019 lawyer said her client denied knowledge of any plan to kill Moana, and that when she picked up her brother Cody and his gun, she did not know he was carrying a weapon.<\/p>\n

\"KorinaKorina Boyes appears in the High Court at Christchurch. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n

The Crown said all four defendants acted with murderous intent and are guilty. <\/p>\n

\"CodyCody Boyes denies murder and is standing trial with three others at the High Court at Christchurch. Photo \/ George Heard<\/p>\n

Moana was reported missing by his family on December 23, 2021, and police began investigating. <\/p>\n

It later emerged that before Moana was reported missing, a silver Subaru was found burned out on State Highway 1 near the Waihao area. <\/p>\n

\"AnaruAnaru Moana’s burned out car, found before he was reported missing. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

Police carried out extensive searches in waterways around that location and at other sites in Waitaki and Waimate connected to the car and other evidence. <\/p>\n

On November 8, 2022, the National Dive Squad began searching waterways near where the burned-out car had been found and a week later Burt and Boden were formally charged. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Crown alleges Anaru Moana was beaten to death and his body dumped in a river. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Cody Boyes was charged in July 2024 and his older sister in March 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Burt and Boden are also charged with kidnapping and injuring with intent. The trial before a jury and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,45451,89,11783,2068,10808,1403,3606,16718,78,14910,11156,21142,41654,4275,111,43,139,69,26346,15147,45396,45452,26072,312,107,54,13797,6736],"class_list":["post-53302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accused","tag-anaru","tag-attack","tag-brought","tag-cant","tag-crown","tag-defence","tag-gun","tag-him","tag-in","tag-kill","tag-killing","tag-lawyers","tag-moana","tag-murder","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-planned","tag-prove","tag-proven","tag-quartet","tag-retribution","tag-says","tag-then","tag-trial","tag-used","tag-was"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}