The officer filmed their exchange on his phone. It is part of Crown evidence showing the actions and whereabouts of Grace, 31, and her partner George Hallet Walker, 37, after the shooting and before they were arrested in Auckland on murder charges three weeks later.
The couple’s High Court trial in Gisborne began last Monday and is expected to end today.
Walker — a Mongrel Mob member — is accused of being the gunman who recklessly fired two .303 calibre shots from outside his distinctive grey Nissan Nivara ute as it idled at the Childers Road end of Titoki Street that night. Grace is charged with being a party to the murder by driving him to and from the scene.
The first bullet heard was never located but police believed it hit a grass verge about 50 metres away from where the gunman allegedly stood; the second bullet hit and fatally wounded Ms Smith, who was about 85 metres away and trying to flee.
The shooting was said to have been further retaliatory action by Walker for an attack by a Black Power group on a vehicle at a Mongrel Mob house earlier that night. Witnesses said Grace was allegedly involved in that dispute and suffered an injury to her hand when she was struck with a metal bar.
It is an agreed fact in the trial that Walker’s ute was used some time after 9pm to ram the Black Power group’s car, which ended up stuck in a fence at a house across the street (one not connected to the dispute), where Ms Smith was visiting that night. She and her sister went in search of the group to ask them to remove the car and were on the footpath when the shots were fired.
The jury has been told a neighbour heard Walker and Grace arrive home arguing after the shooting. Walker was allegedly saying he “shot the wrong person”; Grace had said “Shut the f*** up, who the f*** cares?”.
CCTV camera footage showed someone who looked like Grace running back toward Titoki Street at 10.01pm — half an hour before she was at the cordon.
Walker’s boss at the time said Walker, who he described as a good, reliable worker, went to his job as a tractor driver the following morning. Nothing seemed amiss but once the shift was over, he never heard from Walker again.
A text sent to Walker’s phone that afternoon from one of Grace’s relatives said, “Delete everything off the phone”.
Grace’s aunt said that afternoon the couple asked to stay with her and did so for about a week and a half in Whatatutu before Mercedies’ mother picked them up.
Before leaving, Grace gave her aunt her bankcard to buy a sim card pack for her.
Police intercepted communications on that number.
In a conversation with a long-time mate played to the jury, Walker asked the man if he’d read about the shooting and said, “There’s more to it than just f***en what it says, it’s not like I blatantly just went out there and did it”.
The man asked, “Are you the number one suspect?”.
Walker replied, “Yeah I know bro, I know”.
Walker said he would “explain the lot to you face to face” but the pair didn’t meet up.
Police found the phone under the couple’s mattress when they were arrested.
Walker declined a police interview but Grace agreed.
Indecisive about getting a lawyer she said, “Bloody hell, let’s just get it over and done with ‘cos I didn’t f****n murder no one and I ain’t going to jail”.
She said the day of the shooting was a blur because she’d been drinking heavily. She heard the shots fired while at her cousin’s party. They were “pretty loud”. She thought it was possibly someone “shooting up in the air” or “fire crackers” but then saw the ambulance and police.
Her cousin was having trouble “on the regular” with rival gang neighbours because her cousins “are red (Mongrel Mob) and up the street is all blue (Black Power)”.
She denied being involved in the earlier altercation that night, saying it was something between wannabe gang member “kids”.
After she got home she “probably had an argument” with Walker. It was normal — they often argued because she drank a lot and he didn’t, she said. She arrived home to find their truck window smashed. Angry about that, she punched it and injured her hand.
She heard about Ms Smith’s death the following day, she said.
