Kevin Ratana, aka Kastro Ratana, was shot dead in Whanganui in 2018. Four men appeared in court for sentencing in connection with his death.
Kevin Ratana, aka Kastro Ratana, was shot dead in Whanganui in 2018. Four men appeared in court for sentencing in connection with his death.
Four Black Power members have been jailed for killing a rival gang member on the front lawn of his Whanganui home in broad daylight.
Kevin Neihana Ratana, a patched Mongrel Mob member, was shot dead in the Castlecliff area of the city on the morning of August 21, 2018.
On Thursday morning Black Power members Sheldon Rogerson and Damien Charles Fathom-Baker appeared before Justice Rebecca Ellis in the High Court at Whanganui for sentencing.
While in the afternoon gang president Damien Shane Kuru and Sergeant at Arms Gordon Anthony Runga were sentenced.
Both were found guilty of manslaughter in November, 2021, after a seven-week trial in the High Court at Wellington.
Rogerson had previously pleaded guilty, as a party, to murder while Fathom-Baker pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
There was heightened security outside the courthouse, police and court security, for both sessions as patched members of the rival factions taunted each other with gang slogans from across the road.
As the hearings got under way Justice Ellis acknowledged those not able to be present including Ratana.
Rangitaumata Vakatini, Ratana's mother, told the court she had forgiven the men who killed her only child because no matter how angry she was she didn't want the hurt and pain.
"I choose to do this."
Black Power members Sheldon Rogerson, left, and Damien Charles Fathom-Baker in the High Court at Whanganui for sentencing for killing rival gang member Kevin Ratana in Whanganui in August 2018.
Vakatini, who moved away from the "toxic" environment in Whanganui after the shooting, said she was now having to be a father to Ratana's two sons but struggled to explain his death to them.
"When they hug me I am the closest thing to their dad. I will never have the right words to help them understand."
She said Kevin was her world and no mother should have to lay her child to rest.
"My heart has been shattered and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to go through this."
Crown prosecutor Chris Wilkinson-Smith submitted all the defendants were long-term gang members who had shown no real commitment to break away from the gang environment.
He said lengthy prison sentences were required to deter any other gang member who thought it was all right to arm themselves to protect their territory, patch or hood.
Appearing for Sheldon, Roger Crowley said his client had told police he wanted to take responsibility for his actions from day one despite the gang's code of silence.
"He said 'I don't want to have to put the family through a trial'," Crowley told the court.
Fatham-Baker's defence lawyer Christopher Stevenson acknowledged he had been doing the wrong things and thinking the wrong way.
"He is sorry about what happened and he has expressed that to me repeatedly."
Justice Ellis dismissed charges of participating in an organised criminal group the pair faced.
She said days before Ratana, an aspiring rapper who performed under the name "Kastro", was killed he had scared off two Black Power members with a shotgun.
A plan hatched to go to Ratana's address for a rumble and scare him out of Castlecliff was not very well thought through and amateurishly executed.
Black Power members, some wearing patches, face coverings and hoodies, had armed themselves with poles and battens, went to Ratana's address and began smashing his car.
When Ratana came out of the front door, carrying a loaded shotgun, he was hit in the neck with a solid slug and died instantly.
Despite not intending to kill Ratana the gang members had taken guns and had to have known the probable consequences of their actions could have been serious injury or death.
Defence lawyer Paul Keegan, appearing for Kuru, said although he was the president the jury must have accepted there was no proof beyond a reasonable doubt he was aware firearms were being taken.
Kuru also had not physically taken part in the plan and a detective's evidence he must have ordered or sanctioned the attack on Ratana had been "watered down" to one would have expected it to be that way at trial, Keegan said.
Jamie Waugh, speaking on Kuru's behalf on his cultural report, said despite his harrowing childhood Kuru was trying to undo the deepseated intergenerational hatred between the gangs.
Whanganui Black Power president Damien Shane Kuru, left, and Sergeant at Arms Gordon Anthony Runga appear in the High Court at Whanganui for sentencing.
Kuru had organised diving trips involving members of both gangs.
"He was working to prevent trials like this happening. He is a leader and he can help this community heal itself over time."
Mike Antunovic, appearing for Runga, said he continued to deny he was at the house when the killing happened.
"He will say until the day he dies that 'I was not there, I was not there'."
Antunovic said Runga had been in a long-term stable relationship and had five children who he was looking to give a better start in life than he had.
Justice Ellis sentenced Fathom-Baker to a total five years and 10 months' imprisonment with no minimum non-parole period and Rogerson to six and a half years' imprisonment also with no minimum non-parole period.
Runga was sentenced to seven years' jail and Kuru five years and two months.
Previously Kuru was sentenced to five years and three months' imprisonment after pleading guilty to manslaughter while Hikitia Rawiri Hakaraia, known as Hikitia Box, was jailed for nine years and seven months after pleading guilty to manslaughter and another unrelated killing in April 2018.
