Siblings Delius Eruera and Prodeus Eruera-Ngamu, then aged 17 and 14, kept their identities secret for nearly two years after the fatal road rage stabbing of Joshuah Tasi, 28, in Beach Haven Rd on the afternoon of Friday, March 3, 2023. Video / Hayden Woodward
Brothers Delius Eruera and Prodeus Eruera-Ngamu can now be named after almost two years of name suppression.
The teens were found guilty in May of murdering Joshuah Tasi in Beach Haven.
The frenzied stabbing was described as “arbitrary and senseless,” with the both brothers acting in unison.
Two brothers who were 14 and 17 years old when they participated in a fatal road rage stabbing on Auckland’s North Shore two years ago can finally be named.
Delius Eruera, now 19, and Prodeus Eruera-Ngamu, now 16, were found guilty last May of having murdered fellow Beach Haven Rd motorist Joshuah Tasi in March 2023.
“That’s what you get when you come to Beach Haven!” the two were alleged to have yelled as they gestured triumphantly after the bloody broad daylight attack.
The victim, 28, bled to death at the scene, having suffered stab wounds to his face, shoulder, chest, ribs and lung.
Joshuah Tasi, 28, was stabbed to death on Friday March 3 in a road rage incident. Photo / Facebook
The brothers were able to retain name suppression through the trial in part because of the younger defendant’s age. After their convictions for the murder charge, suppression was allowed to remain in place to protect the fair trial rights of the older brother, who had an unrelated aggravated assault charge pending in Manukau District Court. That charge has now been resolved.
The media was also barred throughout the pair’s trial from reporting that the defendants are brothers.
In most cases, murder carries a mandatory life sentence with a minimum period of imprisonment of at least 10 years. But the brothers' ages prompted a different approach.
Delius Eruera was sentenced in July to 20 years with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years. At the same hearing, Justice David Johnstone sentenced younger brother Prodeus to 14 years and five months’ imprisonment, with a minimum term of imprisonment of six years.
The judge noted that the brothers were born into a gang environment. Aspects of the older brother’s pre-sentencing report suggested that violence was “ingrained” in him, the judge said.
“You need to grow up and learn that using violence makes you a smaller man,” Justice Johnstone said.
Jurors in the High Court at Auckland were told during the pair’s trial of an attack that was later described by the judge as “arbitrary and senseless”.
Tasi had honked at the duo’s BMW and called driver Delius Eruera a “dickhead” as he drove around them at an intersection they had been blocking on the afternoon of March 3, 2023, a witness said.
Eruera then sped to catch up with Tasi and cut in front of him - resulting in a minor crash that caused the bumper of Tasi’s silver van to fall off.
“They acted in unison,” Crown prosecutor Brett Tantrum said during his closing address, explaining that both defendants took off their shirts and got out of the BMW before approaching both front doors of Tasi’s vehicle - giving him no means of escape.
“They then embarked on a sudden and violent attack on Mr Tasi ... [He] didn’t have a chance.”
One witness described one of the teens flashing a Mongrel Mob sign as they celebrated before fleeing the scene.
During the sentencing hearing, Justice Johnstone said the pair likely said something to each other before the attack and knew they both had knives and would use them.
“You knew those knives might kill a man,” he said.
Tasi was remembered in the days following his death as an immensely talented guitarist who was always singing and laughing and flashing a smile that could “melt any heart”. He was farewelled in 2023 with a public service at Glenfield College that included a karanga and haka.
After the guilty verdicts were returned, defence lawyer John Clearwater sought permanent name suppression for the younger defendant based again on his age.
“Now that P has been convicted of the murder of which he was previously merely accused, Mr Clearwater was unable to advance any basis other than P’s youth for the proposition P might suffer extreme hardship,” Justice Johnstone wrote in a subsequent decision that was also suppressed until now.
“Taking account of the starting point of open justice and P’s youth, and following the trial at which his culpability for Mr Tasi’s murder was established, I find P is not likely to suffer extreme hardship in the event his identity is published in connection with this proceeding.”
But Prodeus Eruera-Ngamu’s name needed to remain secret until the resolution of his older brother’s district court charges, the judge decided. Because of their shared last name, jurors at an eventual district court trial might link the older brother indirectly to the murder charge if the younger brother’s name was published, he reasoned.
Delius Eruera, represented by defence lawyer Marie Taylor-Cyphers, was charged with aggravated assault after it was alleged he wielded a weapon in April 2023 while attacking two staff members at a youth justice residence where he was being held while awaiting the murder trial.
Late last year, he was convicted and discharged after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of common assault.
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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