Auckland double-murder trial, Siaosi Tulua, Faaifo Joseph Siaosi: verdict had something for everyone - Steve Braunias

Yesterday in the High Court, two men with connections to the Killer Beez street gang were found guilty of the murder of Siaosi Tulua, 39, and Faaifo Joseph Siaosi, 23, in separate incidents in South Auckland in 2019. Steve Braunias reports on the strangely efficient verdict in which each of the two defendants was found guilty of a murder. Each was also found not guilty of a murder.

One of the great constants of trials at the High Court of Auckland is the jury’s lunch trolley. It got wheeled out yesterday just after 1pm when the jury was sent out to deliberate on a double-murder trial that had taken 28 days and involved over 90 witnesses. There were the sausage rolls, the club sandwiches, the spongey muffins - the menu never changes, and it was all set to be delivered again the following day, because no one expected a quick verdict in a trial so complex and dense. But just as detectives and a dark cabal of nine lawyers were thinking of packing up to go home at 5.10pm, the jury reached a verdict. Justice waits for no repeat order of sausage rolls.

The verdict was breathtakingly fast and also strangely efficient. It had something for everyone. It was a win for the police and prosecution, and a win, too, for the defence. Each of the two men - both with connections to the Killer Beez street gang - was found guilty of a murder. Each was also found not guilty of a murder.

Two homicide teams were linked up (a rarity in New Zealand policing) to investigate two separate killings in South Auckland in 2019. Detectives formed a belief that they were the work of two young men on a crime spree, driving around in a Mitsubishi with rifles, shooting when they felt like it, attempting to hold up tinnie houses, generally having a great time as bad guys presiding over a reign of terror that went from April 17 to May 20 in Ōtara, Clover Park and Takanini.

Siaosi Tulua's grieving family attended every day of the trial. Photo / Police Ten 7

One of the men has name suppression. He was found guilty of the murder of Siaosi Tulua, 39, whose grieving family attended every day of the trial. The man was also found guilty of shooting at an occupant of a tinnie house, unlawful possession of a weapon, assault with intent to rob, and burglary. Crown prosecutor David Stevens told the jury these crimes were committed in tandem with Tamati Simpson. They were best friends, he said, in violent cahoots. The jury rejected that theory. Simpson was acquitted of all the crime-spree charges - but found guilty of the other murder charge, the killing of Faaifo Joseph Siaosi, 23, whose two brothers kept a close eye on the trial.

A complicated set of charges, which the verdicts neatly separated (the two men did not share a single verdict of guilty) after less than four hours of deliberation behind closed doors among the sausage rolls. Perhaps the jury took their cue from Justice Christian Whata, who delivered a remarkably swift summing up on Tuesday morning. The judge began by warning he had a lot to get through. The court settled in for a long day. But Justice Whata came up with a novel and quite ingenious idea of speaking for only 45 minutes at a stretch, with 10-minute recesses. It broke with court tradition, which favours insufferable 90-minute monologues, and it was tidy, thorough, effective. Four such stretches whizzed by and he was done by 1pm.

Stevens led the Crown team of George Witana and Bernadette Vaili with his trademark prep-school demeanour. For the defence, Iswari Jayanandan, Hannah Kim and David Niven acted for the man with name suppression and worked hard to destroy the credibility of the man’s uncles, who testified against him (the court also heard from an aunt who worked at a tinnie house). The legal cabal was completed by Maree Cross and Jasmine Jackson, who assisted Tamati Simpson’s lead defence counsel, veteran Marie Dyhrberg KC, who dismissed the Crown narrative that Simpson and his friend exchanged coded texts implying they were stone-cold gangsters: “The texts were ambiguous, and could refer to a number of things,” said Dyhrberg. “It was just silly talk by two young men.”

The two murder weapons - a .22 and a .243 varmint gun - were displayed at the front of the courtroom. Neither looked silly in the slightest. One was used by Tamati Simpson, the other by his friend; both men will appear for sentencing, separately, on February 16.