Evander "Woody" Tuala hit his head on the pavement after being struck outside the Oxford Hotel in inner Sydney on April 9, 2022. The blow knocked him unconscious. Mr Tuala was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital after hitting his head on the ground outside the nightclub. Suffering serious brain injuries, his life support was turned off two days later.
Four years later, coroner Carmel Forbes said "The evidence does not allow me to find who hit Mr Tuala in the affray before he fell." For the Tuala family, the inquest findings delivered no resolution. "Not only have we had to endure losing Evander, we've also had to endure the torment of dealing with a system that has consistently let us down," his mother Claudia told AAP. "These proceedings have been torture and in the end went nowhere."
The absence of accountability stands starkly against the wider legal response. While five men were convicted of affray over the punch-up, no one has been charged over the 23-year-old's death. The conviction for affray carries lesser consequences than homicide charges and provides no clarity on culpability for the blow that killed him.
The family had urged the coroner to find that one specific man, Keidan Donovan-Phillips, landed the fatal blow. Ms Forbes found Mr Donovan-Phillips and another man, Byron Brown-Yeo, were close to Mr Tuala when he fell. If the 23-year-old was intentionally struck, it was likely to have been one of those men, the coroner said. Yet even this narrowing of possibility fell short of the certainty required to make a finding. She noted the nature of the affray, saying someone else could have landed the fatal blow. "The possibility of a punch from anyone in that tight, frenzied huddle inadvertently striking Evander cannot be excluded," she said.
The core problem was witness reliability. While plenty of witnesses saw the brawl, including two security guards at the Stonewall Hotel across the road, there was no consistent evidence about who punched Mr Tuala. Police were told a variety of claims, including that the assailant was either tall or short, shirtless or wearing a black tank top or white T-shirt. "This is reflective of how frenzied and quick this altercation was," Ms Forbes said. The quality of footage from nearby CCTV and taxi cameras also meant it was impossible to see who punched whom.
Some of the convicted men's conduct during the inquest raised further questions about the investigation's prospects. Two of the convicted men, Joel Tutt and Brayden Holten, told the inquest the quintet never saw or asked each other who landed the blow that knocked Mr Tuala unconscious. Tutt said he and the four other men convicted of affray had never discussed who punched Mr Tuala, even after he died. "I asked them if they had seen what was on the news and stuff, but I never asked them about details," he said. Donovan-Phillips and another member of the quintet, Byron Brown-Yeo, later declined to give evidence to the inquest, citing a risk of self-incrimination.
The inquest also heard testimony about Tuala's life and character. The inquest was told Mr Tuala loved his job as an apprentice electrician. For his family, the legal process offered no path to answers. For the justice system, the case closed with the perpetrator unknown.