Footage released during trial of gang member shooting which took place at Sofitel hotel Auckland in 2021. Video / Supplied
A patched Head Hunters member and a prospect of the motorcycle gang have been found guilty of having played a role in the high-profile shooting inside the lobby of a luxury Auckland hotel last year amid escalating gang warfare, even though neither of them pulled the trigger.
Jurors in the High Court at Auckland took about seven hours over two days to reach the guilty verdicts this afternoon for prospect Tyran Panapa and the member, who has continuing name suppression.
Three other co-defendants - patched members Marcus Nielson and Fred Tanuvasa, as well as gang associate Paraire Paikea - were acquitted.
Justice Simon Moore ordered both of the convicted men to return to court in February to face sentencing alongside former co-defendant Hone Reihana, a patched Head Hunters member who pleaded guilty two weeks ago - just days before the trial began - to the same charge of discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Reihana admitted he was the gunman who fired two shots around 9am on an April 2021 weekday at the Sofitel Hotel in central Auckland’s Viaduct district, targeting a former Head Hunters member who had defected to rival gang the Mongols. It followed a week of escalating violence between the gangs that had included a “firebombing” of a Mongol’s aligned business and multiple drive-by shootings at gang-associated addresses.
No one was injured in the Sofitel shooting, but the rival gang member and a hotel employee dived out of the way as one of the bullets hit the wall next to them. The highly public nature and unusual location of the gang violence elicited nationwide headlines, political commentary and a large police response.
Of the other five men whose trial began last week, four were seen on CCTV footage in or outside the five-star hotel on the morning of the shooting. A fifth person, Tanuvasa, had inquired about a reservation at the hotel the night before, lying to the receptionist about coming from the airport.
To find the men guilty, jurors had to believe that they had worked towards a common intention and were either aware or should have known that it was likely to end in a shooting. Tanuvasa’s lawyer, Shannon Withers, told jurors during his closing address yesterday that the Crown’s claims of a common intention really equated to an unproven “conspiracy theory” that was “patched together with heroic leaps of logic”.
A CCTV still shows the moment shots were fired inside the lobby of Auckland's five-star Sofitel Hotel on April 15, 2021. Photo / Supplied
He accused police of “tunnel vision”, putting their “cream of the crop” detectives on the case in hopes of showing a gang conspiracy when the simplest explanation was that Reihana shot impulsively without prior discussion or warning.
“Most of us are fed up with the endless cycle of violence and stupidity ... but there’s a real danger in lumping people together,” he said, beseeching jurors to take active steps to repress any pre-existing prejudice about gang membership and association when it came time to deliberate.
“Prejudice is a cancer to justice,” he said. “The pathway to conviction must be proven fact ... There’s not a shred of evidence of a shared plan between these men.”
Lawyer Marcus Edgar was the only other lawyer to give a closing address yesterday, while lawyers for the three other defendants and the Crown addressed the jury on Friday.
As an “associate” of the gang - not one of the gang’s more than 300 members and prospects - his client Paikea should be the first person to be acquitted, Edgar argued. It’s unlikely that such a low-ranking person would be let in on a plan if there was one, he said.
Five Head Hunters members and associates were on trial in the High Court at Auckland. They are Paraire Paikea (bottom row left), Marcus Nielsen and Fred Tanuvasa. On the top row is a man with name suppression and Tyran Panapa. Photo / Michael Craig
But Edgar said it was much more likely that “a crazy plan to embark on violence in a hotel lobby” never existed at all.
Some of the defendants used their own names and parked brazenly in front of CCTV cameras, he noted. After the shooting, two of the co-defendants were told not to get in the ute that took Reihana away because there wasn’t enough room.
“Were they really that amateurish? [It] beggars belief,” he said. “Not a good plan - it’s Mr Reihana on a frolic of his own ...
“It doesn’t add up that this was a ... co-ordinated plan. Avoid the speculation and the guesswork. There’s too many gaps in this case.”
Prosecutor Robin McCoubrey told jurors during his own address on Friday that it was hard to swallow the idea that the “utterly bizarre” one-night stay at the $429 per night hotel just happened to coincide with a stay by a turncoat Mongols member.
“They’re not there to have a facial in the spa,” McCoubrey said. “They’re not there to have cucumber sandwiches at high tea. They’re there to do a job.”
It’s the explanation that makes the most sense, he argued.
