Wire Reddington trial: Brother Tipene denies murdering Jamie Gill

Jamie Gill (pictured) died on a Carterton property on June 25, 2023. Wire Reddington is on trial at the High Court at Wellington accused of his murder.

The brother of murder accused Wire Reddington has denied killing Jamie Gill and rejected claims he later told people he did it because his younger sibling didn’t have “the balls to do it” himself.

Wire Reddington is on trial in the High Court at Wellington accused of the 2023 murder in Carterton but his defence lawyer claims he didn’t do it and his brother Tipene Reddington is actually to blame.

However, Tipene denied that while giving evidence for the Crown today and said the last time he saw the victim they had been stabbed with pruning scissors by his brother, who later told him Gill had run away.

The Crown’s case is that Gill died as a result of a fight at the rural Carterton property where the Reddington brothers lived with their mother.

The 32-year-old was allegedly cut and beaten before being strangled and then dragged down the property’s driveway. He was then dumped in a paddock, face down in a ditch and left to suffocate. Several pieces of his ears were also missing.

Defence lawyer Ian Hard asked Tipene about his behaviour on two occasions after Gill’s death.

The first was on the day Gill’s body was found by the property’s landlord Jeanette Linday. She testified Tipene was so angry his eyes were bulging when he was awoken by his mother calling for him to come down the driveway.

Tipene said he was upset because his mother was scared and screaming, initially thinking it was his younger brother lying in the paddock, at the bottom of the driveway.

The second occasion was in July 2023 when Tipene was in a car with his mother, sister and another woman who was driving them. Earlier the court heard Tipene was angry with his mother and sister – spitting on them, threatening to kill them and hitting each one with a wheel brace.

As they crossed over a short bridge the driver, Sherilee Knight, allegedly recalled Tipene saying: “This is where I killed Jamie, I told Wire we should have just chucked him off the bridge, but no, our stupid a*** brother had to drag him back to the paddock.

“I f***in’ told them I’d finish it off because he didn’t have the balls to do it.”

She said Tipene then looked at her in the rearview mirror with wide eyes.

“I told you I’m a f***in’ killer, I don’t kill for fun, I kill because I have to. That’s when I get real scared.”

Tipene repeatedly denied saying those words and said he was cross with his sister for peppering him with questions about Gill’s death. He said the fight in the car started because Knight’s boyfriend owed them money for staying with his mum and not paying. He also said he was wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet at the time.

Hard put it to Tipene he was responsible for Gill’s death.

“I put it to you that you were so angry with Wire and Jamie that you actually did finish him off, because you were so pissed off, you strangled him and that’s what happened unfortunately.”

“Nah,” Tipene said.

“In a rage, in a rage ... you may not have intended it, but that’s the way it went down,” Hard responded.

“Nah, it’s not,” Tipene replied. “I wasn’t even there that evening.”

Tipene did, however, admit he had an explosive temper when drinking.

Wire Manuel Reddington in the High Court at Wellington where he is on trial accused of a murder. Photo / Catherine Hutton

The days before Gill’s death

In the days before Gill’s death on June 25 last year, Tipene described a three-day drinking session at the Carterton property, during which cannabis, methamphetamine and prescription pills were consumed at different times.

The drinking was interspersed with trips into Masterton to buy more food and alcohol.

He said until Gill arrived at the property he hadn’t seen him since they were in prison together in Whanganui about five years earlier. Gill seemed fine, he said.

But in the weeks before Gill’s death, Tipene told the court he was concerned about his brother’s behaviour, describing him as “māuiui” or sick.

“He was slipping away, he’s quite a vibrant young fella, quite lively. I could just see darkness, I guess something was wrong with him.”

Tipene said by this stage Reddington was transient and he told his brother he should come home and live with him and their mother.

He described his brother’s erratic behaviour during those three days including believing people were after him and Gill. At one point he suggested Gill arm himself with a tomahawk. At other times he was incoherent or in floods of tears.

“I thought he was fried, cooked, high on methamphetamine,” Tipene said.

The night before Gill’s death the three men ended up drinking in the sleepout, adjacent to the house. After putting his mother to bed, he said he returned to find Reddington and Gill fighting on the floor.

He said the room was a mess. A table had been overturned, paper was spread across the floor and there was blood on the wall. He said Gill had been stabbed with scissors and he ordered Reddington to stay outside so he could check Gill was okay. When he let Reddington back in he told the pair to clean up the mess and go to bed.

He then returned to the house to check on his mother and the fire and to lock the house up for the night.

When he returned to the sleepout, he said it was empty. He said he called out and felt uneasy when there was no response. He could see a T-shirt in the driveway.

Later he said Reddington returned to the sleepout, wearing only black boxer shorts and covered in mud. He asked where Gill was, to which he said Reddington replied, “he’s run away”.

Tipene told the court he ordered Reddington to clean himself up with a bottle of water and a cloth and then to get into bed.

The next thing he remembered was his mother “screaming her head off, thinking my brother was dead in the driveway”.

While being questioned by Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop, Tipene said his brother had twice bitten off bits of his ears as the pair were fighting.

Gill was found with bits of both of his ears missing. One piece of flesh that was believed to have come from his ear was found near his body with Reddington’s DNA on it.

The jury trial before Justice Jason McHerron is expected to finish next week.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.