Members of the rival gangs, including Mongrel Mob associates Walker and Grace, were at different gatherings in Titoki Street that night. Tensions between the gangs had intensified from verbal abuse to an altercation on the street.
At some time after 9pm, Black Power members armed with weapons — crow bars, sticks, and bats – smashed up a rival’s car.
Grace was allegedly involved in that altercation and suffered a bleeding hand as a result.
Afterwards, Walker allegedly used his ute to ram a Black Power car into a fence at a property across the street — a property where Ms Smith, who turned 36 that day, was visiting.
She and the occupants were not involved in any of the tension that night and had no known gang connections.
Annoyed the Black Power owners of the rammed car seemed content just to leave it there, Ms Smith and a woman she was visiting made the fateful decision to go in search of them at a house along the street with the intention of asking them to remove it.
At that same time, Walker and Grace went to get a rifle from their house, which was close by on Childers Road. En route, Grace was captured by CCTV footage at the Elgin shops lying on the bonnet of their ute.
A witness allegedly heard Walker yelling “Pu Dog”, which Mr Stuart told jurors was a gang call to arms — Pu meaning gun in te reo and Poo being a derogatory term for the Black Power gang.
They returned to Titoki Street in the ute soon afterwards. Grace was allegedly driving; Walker was allegedly in the back seat with an object a witness thought looked like a firearm.
Mr Stuart said footage police obtained from that night, which was shown to the jury as part of the Crown’s opening address, recorded all the sounds that fit with what allegedly happened next — a ute travelling at speed, stopping, idling, two shots being fired and then a getaway.
Ms Smith and the woman she was with were outside the house where the Black Power owners of the car had gone when the two shots rang out. shortly before 10pm. The first hit the ground about 50 metres from where the Crown alleges Walker fired it; the other hit Ms Smith — who was about 85m away — in the upper left side of her chest. Her injuries were not survivable. She died at the scene.
Ms Smith was innocent. She was killed because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mr Stuart said.
He was not saying the defendants meant to shoot Ms Smith but that they had every intention to shoot at Black Power members involved in the earlier altercation.
And, whether they shot the wrong person or not — it was still murder. Walker unlawfully fired a gun in a public place on purpose that night and had either had the actual intent to kill someone or was reckless as to whether he might.
Walker went to work as usual the next morning but the couple left town later that day. Police located and arrested them in Auckland about three weeks later.
In a statement outlining defence issues for Walker, counsel Shane Cassidy reminded jurors to keep an open mind. What had been said in the Crown’s opening was not evidence — evidence came from the witness box and exhibits produced under oath from that box.
There was more to this case than met the eye — than what Mr Stuart had told jurors in his opening address. The evidence itself would show jurors that Walker was not the shooter, or would at least cause jurors reasonable doubt, Mr Cassidy said.
“Walker was not the shooter, did not own a firearm, didn’t have one with him that night, didn’t fire one, did not shoot Ms Smith, and was not responsible for her death.”
Counsel Adam Simperingham said a key issue for Grace was whether the Crown could prove she was involved.
Her denial to police was clear when she said “I aint going to jail for murder”. Walker said he wasn’t involved and if he wasn’t involved, then Grace couldn’t have been either.
The Crown simply lacked evidence against her. CCTV footage on which it relied was too fuzzy.
“Even if you think she might have been present in the lead-up, the defence says she had no guilty knowledge of the offending. Just being associated with a crime doesn’t make you guilty. She had to have a knowing involvement to be guilty.
The Crown had to prove she had an intention to help out or that she somehow foresaw the shooting as part of a likely act or that someone would get shot,” Mr Simperingham said.
Justice Peter Churchman is presiding .
