Jury selected for car boot death case

5:19 pm on 1 May 2017

A jury of eight women and four men has been selected to decide the case of a woman who died after escaping from the boot of a moving car, bound and gagged.

Entrance to the High Court in Auckland

Photo: justice.govt.nz

Five men have denied charges of manslaughter and kidnapping while two others have denied charges of kidnapping only.

Jindarat Prutsiriporn, 50, died in Middlemore Hospital after falling from the car in Papatoetoe in March last year.

The trial, in the High Court in Auckland, has been set down for three months and will hear from more than 90 witnesses.

Empanelling the jury took nearly three hours, with Justice Palmer excusing 23 people and standing down a further 28 prospective jurors.

There were occasional sighs from the jury panel as defence lawyers challenged some of the jurors, and one panel member left in tears after being excused.