Harley Eruiti appears at Manukau District Court for sentencing on April 3, after attempting to pervert the course of justice by faking funeral documentation so he could request compassionate bail. Photo / Craig Kapitan
Harley Eruiti appears at Manukau District Court for sentencing on April 3, after attempting to pervert the course of justice by faking funeral documentation so he could request compassionate bail. Photo / Craig Kapitan
Harley Davidson Eruti was sentenced to three years and three months’ jail for attempting to pervert justice.
Eruti faked a funeral to gain bail, after a similar successful scheme by a co-defendant.
Judge Ngaroma Tahana acknowledged Eruti’s efforts to change but emphasised his serious criminal history.
Gang member Harley Davidson Eruti was languishing at Mt Eden prison after police connected him to a Crips-related robbery spree when he came up with a plan for how to stretch his legs outside custody again: fake a funeral so he could receive compassionate bail.
A similar scheme for a co-defendant had gone off without a hitch two months earlier – resulting in 17 days of freedom after the friend failed to return to custody following what was supposed to be a seven-hour release for his godmother’s funeral.
But that appeared to be the fatal flaw in the plan for Eruti, who named the same funeral home in his application and also claimed it was his godmother who had died.
Authorities weren’t fooled a second time, and last week Eruti appeared in Manukau District Court to be sentenced for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
He was blunt about his flaws as he stood before Judge Ngaroma Tahana – his lawyer having just floated the idea of a non-custodial sentence while acknowledging such an outcome was unlikely given the list of charges against Eruti.
Harley Eruiti appears in Manukau District Court for sentencing on April 3 after attempting to pervert the course of justice by faking funeral documentation so he could request compassionate bail. Photo / Craig Kapitan
“I’ve got a big drug addiction that I need to change,” the 25-year-old said, explaining that he had taken a first step by getting drug counselling and leaving the Crips.
“It just leads me back to jail,” he added of gang life. “It’s been only three months ago that I left them. I just took the hiding [required for exiting the gang] and left them.”
The judge appeared impressed with his progress. But she agreed prison was necessary, especially given his already long list of previous convictions.
“You are before the court on serious crimes yet again,” she said, adding that she hoped he was serious about his desire to change. “Judges never take pleasure sending young men to prison, but in your case, Mr Eruti, this is the least restrictive outcome.”
She ordered a sentence of three years and three months’ imprisonment.
Robbery spree
Eruti, who also goes by the surname Eruiti, landed back on authorities’ radar from late August to early October 2023, when the Crips were suspected of participating in a string of four aggravated robberies.
The gang was suspected of having targeted a McDonald’s restaurant in Papatoetoe, the Airport Oaks Pharmacy in Māngere and Nitefun 98 Bar in Highland Park, as well as having carjacked a motorist near Māngere Town Centre on a separate occasion.
Eruti, however, was only alleged to have been involved in the second robbery, of the chemist.
On September 24, he helped steal a woman’s Honda Accord that had been parked outside her Papatoetoe home, court documents state. The next day, he and two others parked it outside the business. They then ran inside wearing high-vis vests. Eruti was armed with a hockey stick while another held a hammer, police alleged.
Harley Eruti admitted to wielding a hockey stick as he and others robbed the Airport Oaks Pharmacy in September 2023. Photo / Google
“Mr Eruti and the unknown associate ran towards the front counter,” states the police summary of facts that Eruti agreed were correct. “They grabbed an iPad, cellphone and two cash tills from behind the counter before leaving the pharmacy.”
Another co-defendant is alleged to have run towards the Lotto counter, pushing an attendant over as he grabbed that till as well.
Eruti was arrested the next day and isn’t alleged to have participated in the group’s next target: Nitefun 98 Bar, which was robbed two days later. However, co-defendant Santana Tutukitewharau was sentenced to four years and a month’s imprisonment on the same day as Eruti last week for that robbery.
Tutukitewharau carried a hammer while others carried a machete and an object that looked like a gun, court documents state.
“Stay where you are!” one of the men is alleged to have yelled as the group entered the gaming lounge area of the bar. Two employees were then forced to open the tills at gunpoint, police said.
The group also took personal items from the employees and emptied the safe, with one person allegedly punching an employee repeatedly when he said he couldn’t find the keys to the pokie machines. About 1.19am, four minutes after they had entered, the group fled when another employee hit a panic button under the bar, triggering an alarm.
Funeral plans
Eruti remained in jail for months after his arrest and watched as his robbery co-defendant pulled off the fake funeral stunt. The co-defendant returned to jail on January 29 last year. That man then talked to his partner via a smuggled cellphone about getting similarly fake documents for Eruti.
The co-defendant’s girlfriend then sent the forged paperwork to Eruti’s partner, Faith Gage, on March 6 and gave Gage advice on how to use it.
“Between the 6th and 7th of March 2024, defendant Eruti communicated with defendant Gage using a cellphone he obtained in prison,” court documents state. “Defendant Eruti encouraged defendant Gage to communicate with his lawyers to arrange the application and to send him a copy of the death certificate.
“Defendant Gage sent the document to defendant Eruti’s lawyer knowing that the document was forged and that Alison Rose Eruti [the name on the death certificate] did not exist.”
Police confirmed with the funeral home the next day that there were no clients by that name. They then called the number listed on the document for the next of kin – Eruti’s mother. But the number actually belonged to Gage, who pretended to be the mother and confirmed the funeral arrangements.
“After defendant Eruti’s lawyers were provided with the evidence that the funeral home document supporting his bail application was forged and the surrounding circumstances regarding Alison Rose Eruti were made up, they withdrew the application,” court documents state.
Gage, who has also been convicted, confessed to police when confronted.
She said she wanted to get Eruti out of prison so they could have a baby together.
‘Want to do better’
At his sentencing hearing last week, Eruti faced up to 14 years’ imprisonment for aggravated robbery and up to seven years’ imprisonment for one count each of unlawfully using a motor vehicle and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
New defence lawyer Paul Pati noted his client had completed some courses while in custody in an attempt to better himself and he now does weekly addiction counselling over the phone with a Mormon pastor.
“He’s very mindful of the changes that need to be done,” Pati said.
The judge asked Eruti directly why he wanted to leave his old life behind him now after years of offending.
“I’ve got a little nephew that looks up to me,” he responded from the dock. “I want to be better this time and make them proud.”
Harley Eruiti appears in Manukau District Court for sentencing on April 3 after attempting to pervert the course of justice by faking funeral documentation so he could request compassionate bail. Photo / Craig Kapitan
Crown prosecutor Jazmine Cassidy acknowledged that the defendant deserved some credit for his troubled upbringing, which included addiction to methamphetamine from the age of 13.
“From the kōrero that we’ve heard in court today, there may be good prospects for him,” she said.
But prison was the only realistic option, she suggested.
The judge agreed, ordering a starting point of four and a half years for the robbery and adding six months in uplifts for the car theft and perverting justice charges. She then allowed reductions for his guilty plea, remorse, attempts at rehabilitation and his troubled upbringing.
She noted that he passed through 100 foster homes between the ages of 8 and 16.
Judge Tahana pointed out that Eruti had been sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in 2019 for two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of burglary, one count of assault with intent to rob and four counts of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle. He was convicted again in 2021 for injuring with intent and common assault.
“You offended primarily to maintain your drug addiction,” she said. “I only hope that you are true to your word when you say you have left the gang and you want to change.”
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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