{"id":75266,"date":"2025-10-13T08:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/75266\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T08:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:12:09","slug":"christchurch-trial-james-holder-shot-david-bridgwater-but-says-it-was-self-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/75266\/","title":{"rendered":"Christchurch trial: James Holder shot David Bridgwater but says it was self-defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holder doesn\u2019t deny shooting Bridgwater but claims it was in self-defence. <\/p>\n

The Crown alleges Holder had intent when he shot Bridgwater in the abdomen.<\/p>\n

He was asked to leave<\/p>\n

In her opening address, prosecutor Penny Brown said the pair were not known to each other but had been in each other\u2019s company that night.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Bridgwater was found dead outside his car on Carisbrooke St, Aranui in Christchurch. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

They had ended up at a Carisbrooke St address with others when an argument ensued.<\/p>\n

Brown said Bridgwater walked out of the property and was followed by Holder who shot him in the street. <\/p>\n

It was accepted that Bridgwater was shot with a .22 calibre gun that was never recovered.<\/p>\n

Brown said the trial would focus on how and why Bridgwater received the fatal injury.<\/p>\n

She said Bridgwater had been with a couple of women and had been described by a witness as behaving in an obnoxious manner at the address.<\/p>\n

He had been asked to leave the address a number of times. <\/p>\n

Brown said he was being \u201ca bit of a smart guy\u201d when Holder \u201cpiped up\u201d and told him to leave.<\/p>\n

He got into his car and started the engine when Holder followed him out and an altercation ensued.<\/p>\n

Holder was shot about 2.15am.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice searching the Avon River after David Bridgwater’s death. Photo \/ George Heard.<\/p>\n

Holder then allegedly left the address in his car, drove to an associate\u2019s home and then the red zone, where Brown said he disposed of the gun. <\/p>\n

Police found a spent .22 cartridge beside Bridgwater\u2019s body. <\/p>\n

First responders unsuccessfully tried to revive Bridgwater who was pronounced dead about 2.43am. <\/p>\n

A number of items that had been burned were recovered from the Carisbrooke St property when a search warrant was executed a couple of days later. <\/p>\n

Police intercepted Holder\u2019s phone calls in the following weeks, and he was arrested and charged on February 2, 2024. <\/p>\n

\" James
\nJames Arthur Holder is on a trial in the High Court at Christchurch. Pool Photo \/ Chris Skelton <\/p>\n

\u2018Disrespectful, belligerent, dangerous\u2019<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer John Wayne Howell told the jury the trial would be about self-defence.<\/p>\n

He said Bridgwater was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and that he was being \u201cdisrespectful, belligerent and dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was the altercation prior to him being shot, did the circumstances justify Mr Holder acting in self-defence?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Mr Holder fired that shot, he was acting in self-defence; they had not met each other prior to that. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened in those few minutes will come from the defence, keep an open mind, there is more to the story than the Crown evidence.\u201d <\/p>\n

The trial is being heard by Justice Lisa Preston and is set down for five weeks. <\/p>\n

The Crown is expected to call 51 witnesses.<\/p>\n

Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holder doesn\u2019t deny shooting Bridgwater but claims it was in self-defence. The Crown alleges Holder had intent when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[58931,3013,4487,6284,690,11784,42,42123,702,14054,43,2551,312,58932,10117,5424,58933,40,38,41,39,54,19054,6736,1316],"class_list":["post-75266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bridgwater","tag-but","tag-christchurch","tag-david","tag-dead","tag-fatal","tag-headlines","tag-holder","tag-it","tag-james","tag-news","tag-night","tag-says","tag-selfdefence","tag-shot","tag-street","tag-suburban","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trial","tag-turned","tag-was","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75266","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=75266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}