Family’s torture after fatal brawl probe into Evander ‘Woody’ Tuala’s death ‘goes nowhere’

The coroner was unable to determine who dealt the fatal blow in the nightclub brawl.

Four years after a late-night brawl led to a young electrician’s death, his family is bitterly disappointed after being left with no answers about who dealt the fatal blow.

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

While five men were convicted of affray over the punch-up, no one has been charged over the 23-year-old’s death.

A six-day inquest over August and December, and findings on Thursday, brought Tuala’s family no closer to answers.

“The evidence does not allow me to find who hit Mr Tuala in the affray before he fell,” coroner Carmel Forbes said.

The findings were bitterly disappointing but not surprising for his mother Claudia Tuala.

“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,” she said.

“These proceedings have been torture and in the end went nowhere.”

The family had endured four years of torment for nothing and would have to spend the rest of their lives trying to grapple with the injustice of it all, she said.

“I don’t know how we will do that.”

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.

The inquest was told Tuala loved his job as an apprentice electrician.

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

“He lived for quality human connections,” the coroner said, quoting her, on Thursday.

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

The inquest heard from a number of witnesses to the fight, including two of the convicted men — Joel Tutt and Brayden Holten.

Tuala’s family urged the coroner to find that one man — Keidan Donovan-Phillips — landed the fatal blow.

On Thursday, Forbes found Donovan-Phillips and another man, Byron Brown-Yeo, were close to 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.

However, 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.

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 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,” Forbes said.

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