Detective senior sergeant Karen Bright comments on the arrest of three people charged with the murder of Meliame Fisi’ihoi. Video / NZ Police
Two brothers who murdered a rival’s mother - shooting her through the window of her South Auckland home in the middle of the night after she investigated a noise outside - have both been handed dual life sentences.
Jurors found gang members Viliami Iongi and Falala Iongi guilty in December of Meliame Fisi’ihoi’s murder alongside their cousin, Manu Iongi, who was also charged with murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
The trio returned to a filled-past-capacity High Court at Auckland courtroom today as Justice Grant Powell noted the brothers went to the property twice, shooting a bystander who survived in December 2019 before killing Fisi’ihoi the following month.
“Here we’ve got on two occasions completely failing to settle a score but shooting someone who wasn’t the target,” the judge said. “It’s happened twice ... and that is a real threat to the community.”
He ordered Viliami Iongi to serve at least 17 years of his sentence before he can apply for parole and a 15-year non-parole period for Falala Iongi. Manu Iongi was sentenced to eight years and six months’ imprisonment, with a requirement he serve at least half of the sentence before being eligible to apply for parole.
Fisi’ihoi had fallen asleep watching TV in the sitting room of her Favona home in the early hours of the morning when she heard the noise. She was shot at close range - and killed instantly - as she opened the curtains, jurors at two trials were told.
The first trial was aborted in June 2022 after nearly a month of testimony, but the defendants were found guilty by a second jury last December.
Fisi’ihoi was found slumped over the back of the couch facing out the window, which had a bullet hole in it.
Falala Iongi, Viliami Iongi and their cousin Manu Iongi appeared in court for the death of Meliame Fisi'ihoi. Photo / Alex Burton
During both shootings, the brothers intended to target Fisi’ihoi’s eldest son, Stephen, over a botched deal in which Stephen Fisi’ihoi had sold the Iongi brothers what was considered a sub-par gun in exchange for methamphetamine, it was alleged. The defendants and Stephen Fisi’ihoi had known each other for years. All four were described by authorities as members or associates of the 3-6 faction of the Crips street gang.
Falala Iongi, the eldest of the brothers, was described as the aggressor with the beef against the victim’s son and the main instigator of the shootings. Viliami Iongi was described as the “enforcer” and the “trigger man”.
Their cousin was in the car with the brothers as they drove to the home, but defence lawyer Katie Hogan argued today the jury’s manslaughter verdict meant they couldn’t be sure he was part of a plan to shoot anyone or that he even got out of the car with the brothers just before the shooting. The judge disagreed.
“Your presence was as additional muscle to assist Viliami as Falala was to wait in the car with the motor running,” the judge concluded. “You clearly knew that a shooting of some type was intended.”
Fisi’ihoi, a 57-year-old mother of six, was described during victim impact statements today as someone with a contagious laugh and a doting grandmother who was considered “the light of the Fisi’ihoi family”.
“You could have chosen to walk away instead of doing the cowardly thing and pulling the trigger on an innocent woman,” said daughter-in-law Hannah Fisi’ihoi, explaining how the rest of the family “lived on edge” for over a year between the shooting and when the trio was arrested. “You made it a home of fear, anxiety and loss.”
Hannah Fisi’ihoi’s husband, Manu, described having to clean up his mother’s blood after her death and how he still can’t watch gun violence in movies or on TV because of PTSD from having to identify her body.
“You have shown no remorse - nothing that shows you have an ounce of decency,” he said, recalling a “sweet, beautiful” mother who was the happiest and most resilient person he knew. “You have taken away the soul and the heartbeat of this family - my queen.”
Meliame Fisi'ihoi was killed at her home on January 15, 2020.
Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker had asked the judge for a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for both brothers based on a section of the Sentencing Act that requires such a term for murders that involve “the unlawful entry into, or unlawful presence in, a dwelling place” unless a judge was to deem such a sentence “manifestly unjust”.
“This was not a family accustomed to this kind of violence,” Walker said of the victim, her husband and most of her children, adding that they were innocent victims who deserved to feel safe in the “sanctity of their home”.
But there was no evidence the brothers entered the threshold of the home that night and so the 17-year minimum can’t apply, argued lawyer Baden Meyer, who represented Falala Iongi. Defence lawyer Annabel Maxwell-Scott said the law probably does apply to client Viliami Iongi but said such a sentence would be manifestly unjust considering he was just 20 at the time of the shooting.
Justice Powell agreed with Meyer a mandatory 17-year minimum doesn’t apply but said the shooting, nevertheless, had a “significant home invasion quality”.
He ordered a non-parole period of 17 years for the older brother anyway based in part on his long history of violent and gun-related offences dating back to his youth and his unwillingness to show remorse or to put his gang lifestyle behind him. He ordered a non-parole period of 15 years for Viliami Iongi for the same reasons but allowing for a discount based on his youth at the time.
“The need to protect the community is an important consideration,” the judge told Falala Iongi. “You pose a particular danger to the wider community.”
Viliami Iongi (back left), Manu Iongi (centre) and Falala Iongi (back right), accused of the mistaken identity murder of a 57-year-old grandmother in Favona. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The Iongi brothers were also both handed concurrent sentences of 10 years for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and eight years for reckless discharge of a firearm intending to cause grievous bodily harm.
Those sentences related to the December 2019 shooting in which an associate of Stephen Fisi’ihoi was shot in the abdomen while another shot was fired at Stephen Fisi’ihoi as he ran for cover, missing him.
It was only a matter of luck both those shots didn’t also result in murder charges, the judge noted today.
Although there was no indication any of the defendants intend to give up gang life, Justice Powell urged them today to do so. Otherwise, he suggested, today’s sentences won’t be the last: “You will inevitably spend much more of your life in prison.”
Police react to sentencing: ‘Meliame was senselessly murdered at her home’
Police have reacted to the sentencing handed out today to those involved in the “callous murder”
After the imprisonment of three men, Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Va’aelua said those involved in the homicide investigation welcomed the sentences.
“Today the Operation Truro team acknowledge Meliame’s family who have lost a mother and grandmother in tragic circumstances,” he said.
“We are pleased to reach this point some four years after Meliame was senselessly murdered at her home.
“This now brings an end to the court proceedings and we hope that this brings some closure for the family so that they can try to move forward with their lives.”
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.
