Quinntinn Davis, 51, is considered the principal offender in last year's murder of Euan Mackey in Mangamuka. Photo / NZME
Quinntinn Davis, 51, is considered the principal offender in last year's murder of Euan Mackey in Mangamuka. Photo / NZME
A widow says the people accused of her husband’s murder were hissing “like a pack of dogs” as he was being stabbed to death after an alleged dispute over property ownership.
After the 19-second attack was finished, the trio then allegedly got back in their car “cool, calm and collected” and drove off down the driveway.
“They just left us in the dark,” Adrianne Mackey said as she gave evidence in the High Court at Whangārei this week.
Quinntinn Davis, 51, his wife Denise Davis, 41, and their nephew Joshua Tana, 39, are all accused of murder, with the Crown alleging there was an agreed plan by all three to kill Euan Mackey on March 3, 2024.
Denise has also been charged with possession of an offensive weapon. Tana also faces charges of injuring with intent to cause GBH and two charges of male assaults female in relation to Mackey’s daughter and wife.
Quinntinn says he was acting in self-defence while Tana and Denise say there was no plan to murder Mackey and they did not intend to participate in his death, nor kill him.
Property ownership issues
Euan’s daughter, Taygan, had moved into a property on Iwitaua Rd, Mangamuka, on January 1, 2024, after being presented with an offer to look after the house for an aunt.
She took up the offer unaware underlying ownership issues were brewing.
In the lead-up to the fateful night, Taygan had allegedly been experiencing issues with Denise and Quinntinn.
On one occasion, Denise allegedly walked into the house unannounced and began demanding to know who said she could live there.
At the end of the conversation she allegedly said, “Did you know my husband wants to stab and kill your dad?”.
On Thursday, Euan’s wife Adrianne gave evidence around her experiences with the Davises.
She said they had met Quinntinn and Denise once at a birthday party where her husband had a brief introduction before the Davises left.
Adrianne also spoke of a confrontation with the couple on the driveway of the Iwitaua Rd property where a discussion occurred about the alleged threat Denise had made about Euan. The recorded conversation has been presented as evidence in the trial.
“I looked at Denise and said, ‘that’s not good threats like that’ but then the conversation changed to the land.
“I said, ‘that’s got nothing to do with me or my children, we’re just renting and she’s kaitiaki to the whare. Nothing more, nothing less’,” Adrianne told the court.
She presented fresh evidence around another alleged incident in late February last year in which Quinntinn’s mother Rehu Davis arrived with Denise at their house on State Highway 1 to let them know the gate to the property would be padlocked.
At the time, Adrianne and her husband, known as Blue, were asleep but Rehu spoke to Adrianne’s sister, Marlene.
Denise Davis, 41, is one of three people charged with the murder of Euan Mackey. Photo / NZME
“Denise and Rehu Davis turned up early in the morning at my house, drove up on the front lawn and tooted out.
“She came and knocked on the door and they were quite rude,” Adrianne said.
“She said, ‘Adrianne and Blue are living at the house’.”
Marlene allegedly told Rehu to get her facts right and Rehu responded they would be padlocking the gate.
Over the weekend starting Friday, March 1, Adrianne was working at Mangamuka marae looking directly up to the house and noticed several people drinking next door to the main house. Her husband also noticed the gate was padlocked that weekend.
By March 3, after her daughter had returned from a weekend away, Adrianne was concerned about growing tensions and suggested her daughter stay with them but Taygan was adamant she needed to go home.
“By the time we got there, they had all left,” Adrianne said of the people she observed drinking earlier.
Things were out of place
Once at the house and settling in for the evening, they noticed things were out of place.
Adrianne said the screen door was wide open, the sensor light wasn’t working and another family member who lived at the house, Savannah King, discovered her cleaning products for a cleaning job had disappeared.
“That’s when the girls started getting edgy because they knew someone had been around the place and their stuff was taken,” Adrianne told the court.
When the carload of defendants arrived at around 8.52pm, Adrianne said she tried to reason with Quinntinn to come back in the morning to chat, but said he was angry.
Euan Mackey, 59, died from stab wounds following an incident at a Mangamuka property in March last year.
“He said you fullas need to get the f*** out of the house, my brother’s sick, he needs it.”
Adrianne said he continued to say they needed to get out of the house while Taygan began arguing with Denise.
“It was so rowdy,” she said.
Adrianne then recalled Quinntinn’s face as he allegedly demanded a fight with her husband, who was rolling a cigarette.
“That’s all I have in my head, is his face,” she said.
When Quinntinn got out of the car, allegedly with a hunting knife, she believed her husband “didn’t even see it coming”.
He was allegedly sliced across the neck and mouth area and then stabbed a further four times in the back by Quinntinn before falling to the ground. The 19-second incident was also recorded on a phone.
“All I could hear was this hiss hiss sound, they were like a pack of dogs.
“They were hissing and my daughter was just screaming,” she said of her husband’s final moment.
As Euan lay dying, she said the trio got back in the car and drove off leaving them in the dark.
The trial continues before Justice Christine Gordon.
Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.
