A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
The last of a group of men who violently assaulted a bouncer and a patron outside Gisborne’s Smash Palace bar, has pleaded guilty.
Kobra Royce Baucke Puhia, 27, had previously pleaded not guilty to to two charges of injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to each of the
complainants and had elected a jury trial. However, when the case was called at a Crown callover in Gisborne District Court yesterday (subs: Mon May 29), he changed his previous pleas and pleaded guilty.
The attack happened about 1am on June 27, 2021, after bar staff refused to serve the group because they were too inebriated. The bouncer suffered irreparable damage to an eye. The patron, who had tried to intervene, was knocked unconscious and later hospitalised with significant facial and bodily injuries. Three of his teeth were chipped.
Puhia’s co-offenders, Shannon Tuhi, 34, Tei Mohi, 24, and Beejay Harrison, 22, have already pleaded guilty to similar charges.
Tuhi and Mohi were sentenced during April by Judge Warren Cathcart. Tuhi was jailed for three years, two months; Mohi for two years, one month.
