Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased, knocked to the ground and "deliberately struck to the head" in Perth's eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.
Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, her boyfriend Jack Steven James Brearley, 23, and his mates Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, and Mitchell Colin Forth, 26, are on trial in the West Australian Supreme Court charged with murdering Cassius.
A young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the jury on Tuesday that two men confronted two students she was with.
The court was previously told Cassius and a group of other students had gone to a grassy open space after school to watch a fight and then fled into a bush area after three men pulled up in a ute.
"The skinny fella and the tall dude, the bigger guy  ... they ran into the bush," the witness told prosecutor Ben Stanwix.
She said the lean man was carrying a pole.
The witness, who was 16 at the time of the alleged incident and is now 18, said she saw Cassius emerge from the bush.
"I seen Cassius crying, he was on his own, he was walking towards everyone ... they said he was bleeding but he kept saying he was fine," she said.
"His ear was like in half."
Mr Stanwix has previously said Gilmore had left Brearley, Forth and Palmer before they confronted a large group of teen students, who had gathered at a green open space after school.
He alleged that Brearley chased Cassius down and struck him on the head at least twice. One blow split his left ear in half and another lacerated his forehead.
Mr Stanwix said Brearley "was filled with fury about his broken car windows", which happened a day earlier, and about threats communicated via social media that a group of "kids" could damage the home he shared with Gilmore.
Under questioning from Brearley's lawyer, Simon Watters, the witness agreed she only spotted two men at the scene - a biggish "buff" man in a dark top and a skinny man with a mullet haircut in a hi-vis shirt.
Brearley allegedly later bragged about his "vigilante violence", saying: "He was just lying in the field and I was striking him with the trolley pole so hard so he learned his lesson".
Prosecutors say Forth, Palmer and Gilmore helped Brearley and knew his intent.
The smashed car windows were part of a series of escalating tit-for-tat incidents that started on October 9 when some of the accused allegedly "snatched two kids off the street" and unlawfully detained them, punching, kicking and stabbing one of them.
The incidents were triggered by a "love triangle" involving Gilmore's 14-year-old brother and another teen of similar age, and social media exchanges about the boys fighting.
The trial continues.
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