Shaun Finnerty-Gallagher looked "really scared" of two Polynesian men he was with the night before he was found dead in Christchurch's Auburn Reserve, a High Court murder trial has been told.
The evidence was given as the group's shoplifting raid on a liquor store was described on the second day of the Christchurch trial of Sonny Avon Rehu, and Thomas Tihema Christie before Justice Graham Panckhurst and a jury.
Rehu, 32, and Christie, 26, both unemployed, deny charges of murder and indecent assault on 16-year-old Mr Finnerty-Gallagher, who had run away from Child, Youth and Family care and joined up with a group of seasoned drinkers.
The trial has been told that the group left the public library in the city to walk to Riccarton where they raided a liquor shop and held a drinking session in the park where the Crown alleges the drunken teenager was bashed and left to die.
The Crown has suggested he was bashed because of the Liquor King shoplifting raid that went wrong when he was caught and said the name of one of his companions.
Georgina Richards told the court she was a customer in the store when Mr Finnerty-Gallagher walked in.
She said another guy walked in afterwards. He was messy looking with whiskers and a back-pack. They walked up to the counter, and Mr Finnerty-Gallagher was asked if he had taken anything.
One of the men at the counter foot tripped him and then followed him out of the store.
He got caught and fell backwards on the ground. He was crying and she saw the man with the back-pack lift him up. He said, "Tomtom, come and help me." The Crown says that is the nickname for Christie.
Miss Richards said Mr Finnerty-Gallagher ran away, with two Polynesian men following him. He looked scared of them.
Joshua Lewis said he saw Mr Finnerty-Gallagher run out of the store with a bottle in his hand before being chased by a tall man who grabbed it and took it back inside.
Mr Lewis said Christie asked the youth why he had used Christie's nickname in the shop, and said that he shouldn't have done it.
He said that earlier in the day he had given his white hoodie to Mr Finnerty-Gallagher to use.
The next day he met Christie and Rehu, and Rehu gave him the hoodie back. He said it was covered in blood, and when he asked where the blood had come from Rehu told him that Mr Finnerty-Gallagher had been hit in the nose and was dead.
He said he was told that Christie and Rehu had found him lying naked and unconscious in the park and they were unsure how it had happened.
A girl who knew the group said she met Rehu and Christie the next day and Rehu told her that Christie had killed Mr Finnerty-Gallagher.
He said Christie had hit and kicked him. He had hit him in the throat and blocked his airway, and had hit his head on a tree. He told her he was waiting for Christie to turn himself in before he went to the police.
The Crown will call evidence from 56 witnesses during the five-week trial.
