Teen Mongrel Mob member Tana Ormsby-Turner was jailed for his involvement in the murder of an Uru Taha prospect. A police investigation into him having allegedly attempted to pervert the course of justice is ongoing.
Teen Mongrel Mob member Tana Ormsby-Turner was jailed for his involvement in the murder of an Uru Taha prospect. A police investigation into him having allegedly attempted to pervert the course of justice is ongoing.
Tana Ormsby-Turner was jailed in 2023 for his role in a gang killing of a Taranaki father.
While awaiting sentence, he told report writers he had cut ties with the Mongrel Mob.
However, police learned he was instead patched into the gang during that time.
Police began an investigation into Ormsby-Turner and his parents for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice by providing false information to the court.
Police have since been battling for access to the reports held on his court file.
The Court of Appeal has now granted that access and the investigation is ongoing.
Reports allegedly revealing lies told to the court by a young Mongrel Mob member and his parents in a bid to keep the teen involved in a murder out of jail have been released to police.
Tana Ormsby-Turner and his parents allegedly told services that provided reports to the court before he was sentenced that he had cut ties with the gang.
But police found he instead became a patched member during that time, acquiring a large Mongrel Mob tattoo across his back and storing gang patches in his wardrobe.
An investigation into the trio allegedly having attempted to pervert the course of justice ensued, leading to an almost two-year battle by police for access to the three reports and two affidavits held on the teen’s court file.
The Court of Appeal has now ordered the documents to be provided to them and the police investigation remains ongoing.
Ormsby-Turner is still in prison after the murder of Rei Joseph Tumatauinga Maihi Marshall on August 3, 2022, in New Plymouth. He is scheduled to appear before the Parole Board this week.
Marshall, a 23-year-old father-of-two, was hit several times in the head with a claw hammer by Ormsby-Turner, then 16.
Only moments earlier, the teen’s older brother, Turanganui Ormsby-Turner, president of the Mongrel Mob’s West Coast chapter, stabbed Marshall, a prospect of rival gang Uru Taha, in the torso with a hunting knife.
While the hammer blows fractured the back of Marshall’s head, it was the stab wound that caused his death.
The murder took place at a South Rd property in New Plymouth.
Ormsby-Turner attempted to cover up the murder by disposing of evidence at the instruction of his brother.
The teen was initially charged with murdering Marshall but went on to plead guilty to reduced charges of being an accessory after the fact to murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
In July 2023, he was sentenced to 12 months of home detention, which the Crown later appealed.
After much debate over his prospect of rehabilitation and whether it could be achieved in jail, the Court of Appeal set aside Ormsby-Turner’s sentence and replaced it with two years and 10 months' imprisonment.
Gang ties and gang lies
The police battle for the documents submitted to the court in Ormsby-Turner’s case began in the lead-up to his sentencing.
Pre-sentence, cultural and psychiatric reports, all of which detailed his disassociation from the Mongrel Mob since his offending, had been filed.
The reports recorded Ormsby‑Turner as saying he had “left behind” his anti‑social peers, was “intent on leading a gang‑free and more pro‑social life” was happy with his decision to leave the Mongrel Mob and lucky to be able to leave “before [he] was eventually patched”.
His parents expressed similar sentiments to the report writers, and had previously filed affidavits in support of a bail application.
Meanwhile, police learned he had become a patched member of the Mongrel Mob, and a search of his bail address found patches in his wardrobe and the fresh ink on his back.
Tana Ormsby-Turner's brother, Mongrel Mob West Coast chapter president Turanganui Ormsby-Turner, pictured, received a life sentence for the murder.
Police applied to the High Court for access to the documents, stating they required them for an “ongoing investigation into and possible prosecution of Mr Ormsby-Turner and his parents, Mr Ormsby and Ms Turner, for perverting the course of justice by providing false information to the court”.
The Crown went on to tell the High Court at Ormsby-Turner’s sentencing about the patching discovery but while Justice Francis Cooke accepted the teen had lied to the report writers, he did not accept everything the teen said was untrue.
He was not prepared to go against the general view of the report writers by concluding that there was no prospect of rehabilitation and found home detention was the appropriate outcome.
Justice Cooke declined the police application for access to the reports pending the Crown’s appeal against the sentence, and then declined a renewed application by police following the Crown’s successful appeal.
The police then turned to the Court of Appeal to challenge the lower court’s decision and a hearing was held in July last year.
Now, the Court of Appeal has released its decision ruling it was appropriate to grant police access to the requested documents and ordered the High Court to provide them.
In response to NZME’s request for an update on the investigation, a police spokesperson said it was ongoing and potential outcomes were still being considered.
Ormsby-Turner’s statutory release date from prison is in August 2026. He became eligible for parole in October.
Turanganui Ormsby-Turner was jailed for life with a minimum period of imprisonment of 10 years and six months for murdering Marshall.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.
