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Furious that a relative had been accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour, Jimel Desma Tiana Burns-Wong-Tung arranged to have the accuser beaten up, detained and taken to her before she subjected him to a minute-long stabbing spree, the prosecution said today as her murder trial began.
Jurors in the High Court at Auckland watched CCTV footage of what the Crown purported to be the fatal attack on 22-year-old Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa on a Sunday afternoon in November 2021.
“He died after being repeatedly stabbed in the back and upper body with a large kitchen knife,” prosecutor Todd Simmonds said during his opening address. “He was effectively trapped inside that vehicle as he was stabbed again and again and again.”
The home security camera footage, which was obtained from a neighbouring property, showed a woman approaching the back seat of a ute stopped in the middle of a residential south Auckland street.
Although her actions are somewhat difficult to discern due to the distance of the camera, she could then be seen switching a “huge knife” between hands before “lunging” into the open vehicle door that is facing away from the camera, prosecutors contend.
A delivery driver who can also be seen on camera is expected to testify later in the trial that he heard screaming coming from inside the vehicle.
Burns-Wong-Tung is joined in the dock by her partner, Tago Kepa Hemopo, who was charged with accessory after the fact to murder and conspiring with the defendant and others to injure Ngaronoa that day. Three others were charged with conspiracy to injure but are not currently on trial.
Ngaronoa suffered eight stab wounds, including one to his back that punctured his lung, another deep wound to his chest, several to his head and several other defensive wounds, authorities allege.
Minutes after suffering the wounds he was dropped off at Takanini Medical Centre by brothers Thomas and Rocky Ngapera, who had allegedly taken him to Burns-Wong-Tung. The brothers also were charged with conspiracy to injure.
CCTV footage from the medical centre showed three men dragging the stab victim into the facility. He was then rushed by ambulance to Middlemore Hospital but suffered a heart attack en route. He was revived but died at the hospital less than an hour later.
Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung is on trial for murder in the High Court at Auckland, accused of killing 22-year-old Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa in November 2021. Photo / Michael Craig
Prosecutors said things started going south in the days prior to the stabbing when another woman accused Ngaronoa of having either touched or hit her young daughter. Ngaronoa strenuously denied the allegation, but the situation remained tense and on the day before his stabbing he suggested that Burns-Wong-Tung’s relative might have behaved inappropriately in the child’s presence, Simmonds said.
“That appears to be the context of what then began to pick up speed,” the prosecutor said. “It didn’t take long for Ms Burns-Wong-Tung to hear about this so-called allegation. And she took great offence at this perceived slur ...
“By suggesting [the relative] had done something wrong, Mr Ngaronoa set off a chain of events that resulted in his violent death the next day.”
In addition to the Ngapera brothers and her partner, authorities allege Burns-Wong-Tung conspired with her mother, Kelly-Anne Burns, to detain and injure the 22-year-old. Text messages between the two show they were in repeated contact on the night before the attack, when Thomas Ngapera went to the south Auckland home where Ngaronoa was staying and detained him.
Tago Kepa Hemopo is charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Rangiwhero Ngaronoa and conspiring with others to injure Ngaronoa that day. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The victim would remain under Thomas Ngapera’s control until he was dumped at the medical centre roughly 12 hours later, authorities allege.
One witness is expected to testify that he met with Thomas Ngapera and Ngaronoa outside a Weymouth home hours before the stabbing. The 22-year-old was either in the back or the boot of Thomas Ngapera’s vehicle and had a gash above his eye, the witness is expected to say.
“He was crying and saying he hadn’t done anything wrong,” Simmonds said.
Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa, 22, died in November 2021 after he was dropped off at a South Auckland medical facility with critical injuries. Photo / Supplied
Phone records show that Burns-Wong-Tung herself spoke to Ngaronoa’s father, then twice called her mother less than an hour before the stabbing, prosecutors said.
“They were in the process of determining some punishment that was going to be meted out to him and where that was going to happen,” Simmonds said. “By now it is crystal clear that young Rangiwhero was about to get a hiding.”
By about 12.30 that afternoon, three vehicles had stopped in the street outside another Weymouth address. Inside the vehicles, prosecutors said, were all five co-defendants and the victim.
“This is a coordinated approach,” Simmonds said. “This is not a coincidence.”
In the attack that followed, all of the others knew what was happening but did nothing to interfere, Simmonds alleged.
“Thanks, bruv,” Burns-Wong-Tung is alleged to have told Thomas Ngapera as the attack ended and the cars dispersed.
Burns-Wong-Tung was charged with murder two weeks later, declining to speak with police about what had happened. Her partner was arrested three days after her.
The Crown’s opening address is expected to continue when the trial resumes tomorrow before Justice Matthew Muir and the jury.
Defence lawyers Ron Mansfield, KC, representing Burns-Wong-Tung, and Dale Dufty, representing Hemopo, will also have the option to briefly address the jury before the first witness is called.
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.
