An Adelaide driver accused of deliberately killing another man in a hit-and-run crash has pleaded not guilty to murder.
The partner of the victim cradled their four-month-old daughter and audibly gasped as Michael Charles Henley, 23, pleaded not guilty to all charges in the Adelaide Magistrates Court today.
Mr Henley, appearing from custody via video link, was allegedly driving a Ford sedan that crashed into a Toyota HiLux ute on Flaxmill Road at Morphett Vale on July 20, 2021.
A passenger inside the Toyota, Nicholas Darling, 20, died at the scene.
His daughter was born five months after his death.
Her mother, Ruby Dayman, cried aloud as Mr Henley pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder, endangering life and leaving an accident after causing death.
Mr Henley suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash.
Police have previously said in a statement that the Ford failed to stop at the scene and was later found burnt out in a gully off the Southern Expressway at Reynella.
Mr Henley turned himself into police a few days after the crash and was charged with manslaughter, but that was upgraded to murder in February.
Passenger admits to several offences
Joshua Shawn Rossborough — who allegedly was a passenger inside the Ford on the night of the crash — also appeared in court, pleading guilty to impeding a police investigation, breaching the Emergency Management Act and operating an unregistered and defective vehicle.
Henley's lawyer, Casey Isaacs, told the court his client made no plea to charges of breaching the Emergency Management Act, operating an unregistered and defective vehicle and driving on a learner's permit without a qualified provision.
The murder trial will continue in the Supreme Court in July.
