George Hallet Walker (left) and Mercedies Grace (right)
A jury deliberated for three hours yesterday before finding Mongrel Mob couple George Hallet Walker and Mercedies Grace guilty of murdering Gisborne woman Maraea Smith.
Ms Smith, 36, was shot dead on Titoki Street about 9.55pm on March 25, last year.
The jury accepted the Crown case that Walker, 37, fired two shots from outside his distinctive grey ute as it idled at the Childers Road end of Titoki Street, and that Grace, 31, drove him to and from the scene. She was found guilty as a party to the murder.
The Crown said Walker mistakenly thought he was firing at rival Black Power affiliates in retribution for their attack on a car during an altercation at a Mongrel Mob house earlier that night in which Grace’s hand was wounded.
Walker intended to kill someone, albeit not Ms Smith, or was reckless as to whether he might do. Grace must have known Walker had the gun and what was about to ensue.
“Why else take a gun to a gang fight?”
Extreme violence was par for the course in the gang world, Cameron Stuart said in closing the Crown case on day eight of the trial on Tuesday. Evidence put the couple together at the right times for them to have acted in concert.
Walker had the motive, means and opportunity to be the gunman, and with gang tensions high he had already — ahead of the shooting — engaged in some “very dangerous behaviour”, Mr Stuart said.
Angry and aggressive, he drove his ute around the neighbourhood at speed, erratically and on the wrong side of the road. He yelled Mongrel Mob slogans and called for a gang hit on the rivals. When he couldn’t muster support, he rammed the Black Power car.
He then went to the couple’s cabin nearby on Childers Road to get his firearm, spotting Grace on the way and giving her a ride on the bonnet of the ute.
Grace knew what Walker was about to do, she witnessed the provocation and must have known he rammed the vehicle. She must have seen him get the firearm, and wanted to go with him. Blood found in the cab supported the Crown’s contention she drove the ute after suffering a wound to her hand.
A neighbour saw the couple leaving — Walker in the back seat with what looked like a firearm.
After hearing shots fired, the neighbour claimed to have heard them arrive home again and that Walker was upset, saying he’d “shot the wrong person”. Grace allegedly replied “shut the f*** up”.
The couple further incriminated themselves when they left town the next day and by their actions afterwards, Mr Stuart said.
The jury had the benefit in this case of not just subjective evidence — eye witness accounts of what happened — but also objective evidence, which was independent and indisputable, including a Facebook clip taken in the street that night, CCTV footage, photographs, DNA results, and intercepted phone communications, Mr Stuart said.
Walker’s counsel Shane Cassidy’s put it to the jury that the fatal shot did not come from the Childers Road end of Titoki Street but was fired from the other direction - and not by Walker.
If the shot that killed Ms Smith had come from where the Crown alleged, Ms Smith would have been shot in the back, not her chest, Mr Cassidy said.
Regardless of Walker’s involvement in events immediately before Ms Smith’s death, he was not responsible for what happened as she was running away from him. Even if he was the person that got out of the back of his own truck, even if he had fired a shot from a firearm, even if he thought he might have been responsible, he could not have been - the evidence proved it.
Ms Smith was likely caught in a cross-fire during a gang confrontation.
No one had identified the person who fired the fatal shot. It might not have been anyone associated with Black Power but the evidence pointed to it, given what had happened earlier that night and given a witness heard the group talking of getting guns.
Mr Cassidy invited the jury to conclude Walker was the only person who had driven his ute that night.
It was not disputed the ute was at the Childers Road end of Titoki Street when the shots were fired. However, Walker was not one of the shooters and neither was anyone else associated with him or his vehicle. There was no evidence someone who got out had a firearm.
Grace’s counsel Adam Simperingham’s submissions echoed Mr Cassidy’s.
Like Mr Cassidy, he rejected the neighbour’s evidence as wholly unreliable, Mr Simperingham calling it “completely contrived”.
He said the case against Grace was purely circumstantial; the Crown couldn’t prove she was the driver - the blood evidence didn’t help. And, if Walker was the driver, then of course she wasn’t.
In summing up, Justice Churchman said that in considering Mr Cassidy’s theory about the case the jury should consider whether the Black Power affiliates involved in the earlier dispute went in the direction Mr Cassidy suggested, the implication there might have been a firearm in their vehicle and if anyone had identified one. The jury should also consider if Ms Smith’s sister - who was with her when she died - might’ve been mistaken about the direction Ms Smith was facing, and where all the other witnesses said the sound of the gunshots came from.