Five plead not guilty over shooting of teen

All five people facing charges over the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Connor Whitehead at a party in Christchurch three weeks ago have pleaded not guilty. Connor’s family was in the High Court at Christchurch yesterday to see the pleas entered. They held a framed photograph of the teen, who was killed at a 15th birthday party on Guy Fawkes night, November 5, at a property in Heaphy Place, Casebrook. Name suppression continues for all but one of the defendants until legal arguments set for February. The defendants – three men and two women – face charges of murder or abetting the crime by assisting two of the men to avoid arrest. Justice Cameron Mander remanded the two men facing murder charges in custody, and the other three people are on bail.