KEY POINTS:
A man who hid the rifle which shot Wanganui toddler Jhia Te Tua and a woman who helped two men involved escape arrest were sentenced yesterday.
Both received community-based sentences.
Two-year-old Jhia died on May 5 last year after shots were fired at her parents' home in the Wanganui suburb of Gonville after an altercation earlier in the day between her Black Power father and the Mongrel Mob.
Two people who had earlier pleaded guilty to being accessories to manslaughter were sentenced in the High Court at Wanganui yesterday, the Wanganui Chronicle reported.
Raynor Stephen Kahotea, 31, of Wanganui, helped gunman Hayden Wallace - who has pleaded guilty to murdering the toddler - to hide the murder weapon.
Sickness beneficiary Athleen June Barlow, 35, assisted two others to evade police.
Sentencing the pair Justice Warwick Gendall described how in 2006 and 2007 the Mongrel Mob and Black Power had terrorised Wanganui, resulting in the state of "open warfare" that culminated in Jhia's death.
Justice Gendall said while Kahotea and Barlow were not gang members, associates or prospects, they had aligned with the Mongrel Mob and encouraged their activities.
He sentenced Kahotea, who has 57 previous convictions, to 100 hours' community work and 18 months' intensive supervision with conditions that he undergo rehabilitation and not associate with specified people.
"It's not appropriate that you be sentenced to prison so that you may pursue gang contacts," he said.
He sentenced Barlow, who has 29 previous convictions, to community detention for six months with a nightly electronic curfew, reporting obligations and orders not to associate with specified people or any member of the Mongrel Mob.
Wallace and Karl Unuka Check pleaded guilty this month, during a depositions hearing, to murdering the toddler.
Two other men pleaded guilty to manslaughter and being part of a criminal group, and four others to being part of a criminal group.
Five other men have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial - one for murder, three for manslaughter and one for being an accessory after the fact of murder.
- NZPA
