No closure for family years after ‘frenzied’ brawl

Four years after a wild late-night fight left a young electrician dead, his family is wondering who was responsible for the fatal blow.

Evander “Woody” Tuala hit his head on the pavement after being shot outside the Oxford Hotel in inner Sydney on April 9, 2022.

While five people were found guilty of affray in relation to the punching incident, no one was charged in the 23-year-old’s death.

The six-day investigation in August and December and Thursday’s findings brought Mr. Tuala’s family no closer to answers.

“The evidence does not allow me to find out who shot Mr. Tuala in the fight before he fell,” Coroner Carmel Forbes said.

The 23-year-old rushed to St. Petersburg after hitting his head on the ground. He was taken to St. Vincent Hospital.

Suffering severe brain damage, life support was turned off two days later.

Early in the investigation Ms Forbes was told Mr Tuala loved his job as an apprentice electrician.

His mother, Claudia Tuala, described her son as having a selfless, generous spirit.

“He said he lived for quality human connections,” Ms. Forbes said Thursday.

“He was charismatic, with a magical way of making people feel special and noticed.”

The investigation heard from numerous witnesses to the fight, including two of the convicts, Joel Tutt and Brayden Holten.

Ms. Tuala’s family asked the coroner to find that a single man, Keidan Donovan-Phillips, delivered the fatal blow.

On Thursday, Ms Forbes discovered Mr Donovan-Phillips and another man, Byron Brown-Yeo, were near Mr Tuala when he fell.

The coroner said the 23-year-old could have been one of these men if he was shot deliberately.

But he noted the nature of the fight and said someone else could have dealt the fatal blow.

“The possibility that anyone in that tight, frantic huddle could inadvertently land a punch attacking Evander cannot be ruled out,” he said.

Although many witnesses saw the fight, including two security guards at the Stonewall Hotel across the road, there is no consistent evidence of who punched Mr Tuala.

Police were told various allegations that the attacker was tall or short, shirtless, or wearing a black tank top or white T-shirt.

“This shows how crazy and fast the fight was,” Ms Forbes said.

The quality of the footage from nearby CCTV and taxi cameras also meant it was impossible to see who was punching whom.