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RNZ News
7 hours ago
- RNZ News
Murder defence team claim shots fired at Hori Gage were intended to intimidate, not kill him
By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice reporter of Robert Richards (left) and Royden Haenga are jointly charged with the murder of Hori Gage. Photo: NZ Herald / Jeremy Wilkinson The lawyer for a Black Power member accused of shooting a man in front of his family says the accused man only wanted to scare and intimidate Hori Gage, not to kill him. Royden Haenga and Robert Richards are facing trial for the murder of Gage, whom the two Black Power members allegedly killed in retaliation for an attack on one of their local presidents several days earlier. However, Gage, who was a member of the Mongrel Mob, was part of a different chapter and hadn't been involved in the earlier incident at all. It's the Crown's case that Richards and Haenga were driving around Palmerston North on Sunday, 6 August, 2023, armed with guns and searching for revenge. Richards denies being there at all, while Haenga admits he was in the car and admits shooting at Gage, but claims he didn't mean to kill him. Defence lawyer Scott Jefferson partly quoted his client's words in his closing address in the High Court at Palmerston North this morning when he said: "Ladies and gentlemen, it was a f***ing sh*tshow that shouldn't have happened, but it wasn't Royden Haenga's sh*tshow." During a police interview, Haenga had described the situation on 6 August in those words. Later in that same interview, Haenga claimed he was "... just trying to intimidate him, not kill the c*nt". "Who plans or who wants a sh*tshow? No one does," Jefferson put to the jury this morning. "This is the whole point of Mr Haenga's case." Jefferson said Haenga didn't plan the murder, and the person in the back seat of the car acted alone and unscripted. The Crown alleges Richards was the man in the back seat and that he got out, advanced on Gage and shot him five times while he sat in his car with his family. A third man in the car, who was driving, Neihana Cunningham, has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and Jefferson said that whoever the back seat passenger was, he was primarily to blame. "There is a huge distinction between what Neihana Cunningham and Royden Haenga did and what the guy in the back seat did," Jefferson said, noting that Haenga had been shooting low, not trying to hit Gage. "What the person in the back seat did to Mr Gage was an execution, but it was an entirely unscripted and unassisted act from Mr Haenga's point of view." Following a violent depatching and stabbing of a local Black Power president on 4 August, the Crown says a national call to arms went out to other chapters of the gang. The Crown says Richards travelled from Hawke's Bay with other Black Power associates in response to that call to arms and got into a car with Haenga, looking for someone from the Mongrel Mob as a target. Richards' lawyer, William Hawkins, centred his closing address on the credibility of what he described as "self-interested" Crown witnesses. "Only one person formally identifies him as the shooter," Hawkins said, referring to a sole witness who was granted name suppression at the trial. Hawkins centred on this witness' first interview with police, in which he lies about his involvement in terms of driving Haenga out to a Black Power address known as "The Farm", and then leaving with him and another man whom he later identified from a police montage as being Richards. Hawkins accused the witness of wanting to "have his cake and eat it too" by claiming he wasn't in the car, but was also able to identify Richards. Hawkins also suggested that the witness was in the car when Gage was shot. Also under fire in Hawkins' closing address was Cunningham, whom he said was perilously close to sitting in the dock next to Richards and Haenga as an accessory to murder. "But he had a change of heart," Hawkins said, referring to Cunningham's decision to plead guilty to manslaughter for his role as the getaway driver of the car after Gage was shot. Hawkins said Cunningham was doing everything he could to reduce his sentence, including giving evidence against Richards and Haenga at the "11th hour" before the trial. Finally, Hawkins said that while there was CCTV that placed Richards around Palmerston North leading up to the murder, there was none that placed him at The Farm, nor any cellphone polling data. Crown prosecutor Guy Carter summarised several weeks of Crown evidence for the jury on Tuesday, including police surveillance, phone polling data, and testimony from multiple witnesses. A key Crown witness, who has name suppression, admitted driving Haenga to a known Black Power address in Palmerston North roughly 40 minutes before the murder. That witness, who is not a Black Power member, then drove away with Haenga and another person he later identified to police as Richards, before stopping at another address where he got out and Cunningham got in to drive. It was Cunningham's evidence that, as he was driving along Croydon Ave, it was Haenga who told him to turn around as they drove past Gage and his family sitting in their car in the driveway. Carter said CCTV footage places Haenga's white Nissan Teana driving towards The Farm shortly before the murder, and more footage shows it speeding away from the scene of the crime on Croydon Ave on 6 August, 2023. In that footage, gunshots can be heard and Gage's partner, Amethyst Tukaki, and her three children can be heard screaming in the aftermath. Carter referenced forensic evidence heard in the trial showing that, in total, nine bullets were fired from two guns. Six of them struck Gage. Five of them, the Crown says, were fired by Richards, while the sixth, which struck Gage in the arm, was allegedly from Haenga. "You've heard the shooting and the audio," Carter said, "He was shot six times in front of his family, while he sat defenceless and unprotected in his vehicle." Carter said it was clear that Richards was the third person in the car, and that there was an overwhelming amount of evidence to support that. However, Carter said that Haenga facilitated the murder to the point it couldn't have happened without him by supplying the car, the local knowledge and the driver. The prosecutor also said Haenga deliberately shot at Gage, and had brought a gun he knew was loaded, which he aimed at the other man and squeezed the trigger. Carter said that while, yes, Gage was a member of the Mongrel Mob, he was also a family man and a father to four children, and he'd had nothing to do with the gang violence from days earlier. "But he was the one who paid the perverse price that was demanded for it. "A man they didn't even know personally, but they chose to kill him because he was associated with the wrong gang on the wrong weekend." Carter said the several-week-long trial had been about holding the two shooters accountable. "What they did does amount to an execution," he said. "It was targeted, it was a callous, it was cold-blooded." Justice Helen McQueen will sum up the case for the jury on Thursday morning, before they are sent out to deliberate. - This story was first published by NZ Herald.
RNZ News
9 hours ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Small business sales drop
Photo: 123RF Small business sales underperformed in the second quarter of the year, with weakness concentrated in the North Island. The latest Xero Small Business Insights indicates sales fell 0.1 percent in the three months ended June over the year earlier, which was consistent with the downturn seen over the the past 12 months. The latest sales data was tracking under the long term average of 6.3 percent growth, and well below the 3 percent growth seen in Australia over the second quarter. However, the month of June was the best since April 2024, with sales up 4.4 percent. The agricultural sector was another bright spot with a 11 percent increase in sales in the June quarter, making it the third quarter in a row for double digit growth. However, Xero country manager Bridget Snelling said the resilience of the agricultural sector was not enough to offset weakness elsewhere, with the construction sector hit particularly hard with a 6.4 percent drop in sales. She said the sector's sales had been falling since late 2023, with retail and manufacturing sales also down. "Despite consistent OCR (official cash rate) cuts by the Reserve Bank since August 2024, we're yet to see the expected boost to consumer and business activity. "While there are some bright spots like agriculture, the overall picture remains muted." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Weather live: Severe thunderstorm watch for top of North Island, heavy rain expected into Wednesday
Weather watches and warnings are in place for much of the North Island and the top of the South Island. Significant heavy rain and strong north to northeast winds are expected into Wednesday morning, with warnings of flash flooding and slips. Several schools have been closed in Northland, and Auckland's Harbour Bridge is under an amber alert due to high winds until at least Tuesday afternoon, with heavier rain forecast. MetService said the severe weather was caused by a front moving eastwards, and was expected to last into Wednesday morning Follow RNZ's live weather updateds at the top of this page. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Climate
- RNZ News
Weather live: Severe thunderstorm watch for top of North Is, heavy rain expected into Wednesday
Weather watches and warnings are in place for much of the North Island and the top of the South Island. Significant heavy rain and strong north to northeast winds are expected into Wednesday morning, with warnings of flash flooding and slips. Several schools have been closed in Northland, and Auckland's Harbour Bridge is under an amber alert due to high winds until at least Tuesday afternoon, with heavier rain forecast. MetService said the severe weather was caused by a front moving eastwards, and was expected to last into Wednesday morning Follow RNZ's live weather updateds at the top of this page. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Jewellery tycoon dies aged 86
Sir Michael Hill, owner of the multimillion-dollar jewellery chain of the same name, has died aged 86. The millionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist was born in New Zealand in 1938, mere months before the outbreak of the Second World War. According to a memoriam statement posted by Michael Hill International Limited, Sir Michael's first love was music. 'As a young man, he dreamt of becoming a concert violinist, however – at just 17 – he was told he had started too late to reach the pinnacle of his craft,' a spokesman wrote. Sir Michael was raised in Whangarei, on New Zealand's North Island, where he attended Whangarei Boys' High School until he was 16, at which point he elected to drop out. 'Forced to reconsider his future, he pivoted into the world of jewellery, joining his uncle's family-owned store in New Zealand.' Shortly after founding his own business alongside his wife Christine in 1979, Sir Michael decided they should expand into the Australian market. 'What began as a job soon became a passion. Sir Michael had a natural gift for storytelling, a keen eye for visual merchandising and an instinct for attracting customers and a gift for selling,' the spokesman said. 'He won international awards for his window displays and revolutionised the store's advertising with bold, unconventional campaigns.' Michael Hill Chairman Rob Fyfe said Michael brought a 'deep sense of purpose' and an 'enduring curiosity, open-mindedness and creativity' to everything he did. Sir Michael is survived by his wife, Lady Christine and their two children. More to come.
