Clinton Thinn is serving 25 years in a US jail for murdering a fellow prison inmate. Photo / Supplied
It was just after midnight when Auckland lawyer Scott Leith spotted a suspicious man in central Auckland hiding a semi-automatic rifle beneath his jacket.
The gunman had his finger over the trigger guard and was carrying 40 rounds of live ammunition in his front trouser pockets and a spent round in the weapon's chamber.
Fearing a potential mass shooting, Leith and his mate Matt Cross jumped on the man and wrestled the weapon free, pinning him on the ground until police arrived.
But it was more than a decade later that Leith would learn the gunman was the stepbrother of Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye and facing a possible death sentence in the United States for a jailhouse murder.
That man was aspiring Kiwi rapper Clinton Forbel Thinn, who is now serving 25 years to life in prison.
The former Auckland Grammar student was jailed in 2018 by the San Diego Superior Court for strangling fellow inmate Lyle Woodward with a cloth ligature in December 2016.
He was awaiting trial at the time of the killing for attempted robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a loaded firearm in connection with a bungled San Diego bank robbery involving a hammer and a flare gun in June 2016.
Thinn, 32, who is the son of Auckland lawyer Neil Thinn and grew up with Kaye, a senior National MP, was a YouTube rapper who had travelled to California to break into the music industry.
But the Herald on Sunday can reveal he also struggled with drug addiction and mental illness and had already faced firearms charges in his home country.
Thinn pleaded guilty to the bank robbery charges in the US and was sentenced to three years' jail in 2018. But he has now filed an appeal against his murder conviction, claiming the killing was in self defence.
More than a decade earlier, Leith, a criminal lawyer and former police officer, was enjoying a night out with fellow Army Reserve officers in July 2006 when he spotted Thinn trying to conceal a semi-automatic weapon.
Leith told the Herald on Sunday he feared Thinn was going to shoot someone so he and a mate jumped on the teenager to disarm him.
"As I parked the car, myself and one of the other officers noticed Clinton walking in Fort St carrying and trying to hide a high-powered rifle under his jacket. We immediately dialled triple 1 and decided we thought he was going to go and shoot someone if we didn't intervene. I leapt on him and wrestled the loaded firearm off him and held him down till police arrived."
Leith said Thinn threatened the two men with gang links and said he would have them killed, but they restrained him until police officers took him into custody.
It later emerged Thinn had earlier stormed out of his apartment, following a party, in what police described as a "P-fuelled rage" before stealing his father's hunting rifle from his Parnell home and heading into the CBD.
Court documents show Thinn was carrying the rifle in the "sul" position, where "the barrel of the rifle is pointed towards the ground and slightly forward. The holder has his hand over the trigger guard ready to fire if required".
Police discovered 40 rounds of live ammunition and four spent cartridges in Thinn's trouser pockets and a spent round in the chamber.
"We were just a couple of guys in suits that had to bash him to get the gun off him and took him down and sat on him until the cops got there," Leith told the Herald on Sunday after learning of Thinn's murder charge in the US.
After Thinn's 2006 arrest, police raided his house and found cannabis seedlings and a meth pipe.
A former schoolmate said Thinn's behaviour was sometimes "pretty crazy" and described him as "a bit of an odd character".
He said Thinn was an aspiring rapper who posted videos of himself performing online.
"All of a sudden he just went MIA [missing in action] then next minute he's posting up photos in California."
Another associate said Thinn had just broken up with his girlfriend before travelling to the US. "That's when s*** really got bad for him."
It has also emerged that Thinn was treated for drug addiction and mental health problems in Auckland before travelling to the US. Former associates contacted the Herald on Sunday saying they had undergone rehab with him at Odyssey House.
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A woman whose son received treatment with Thinn said he had been supportive of her son and polite and respectful.
"What was clear was that Clinton was terribly unwell and there was little support services available to help when he could not help himself."
The woman said Thinn had become a victim of New Zealand's failing mental health service.
"Without a doubt he would not be in this situation if he had received the support and help to keep him from harm's way.
"[It must] be absolutely devastating to his father who practises law in Auckland; he was Clinton's pillar of support when all else failed."
Neil Thinn declined to comment when contacted by the Herald on Sunday this week.
Nikki Kaye said she was unable to comment while legal processes were ongoing.
"It continues to be an incredibly difficult time for all those affected."
Thinn originally faced the death penalty after being charged with first degree murder for the prison killing, in a maximum security facility housing nearly 1800 inmates.
A friend told the Herald on Sunday Thinn had been "picked on" because of his accent and had pledged allegiance to the Aryan Brotherhood jail gang.
Thinn's lawyer, Kenan Gultekin, said his client choked Woodward to unconsciousness out of self-defence, claiming Woodward had been bullying Thinn behind bars.
An appeal hearing is likely later this year.
The aspiring Kiwi rapper serving a life sentence for an American jailhouse murder is appealing his conviction, arguing the killing was in self-defence.
In December 2016, Clinton Forbel Thinn strangled his cellmate Lyle Woodward to death over several minutes in a San Diego jail using a ripped cloth ligature.
But Thinn's lawyers claim he was isolated and vulnerable as a white New Zealander in a violent, foreign prison and should never have been convicted of first degree murder.
Thinn, who was in jail awaiting trial for aggravated robbery, was found standing shirtless over the victim, breathing heavily and shaking, with a "1000 yard stare".
Prison staff tried unsuccessfully to revive Woodward, before paramedics found a pulse and rushed him to hospital. He never regained consciousness and life support was switched off several days later.
At one stage he faced the death penalty but was jailed to 25 years to life in prison.
The Herald on Sunday can reveal that a judge declared a mistrial in January 2018 when a prospective juror saw Thinn in handcuffs. In February 2018 a second mistrial was declared after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
Thinn was convicted of murder in July 2018 but court documents show he has now filed an appeal.
Thinn's lawyer Robert Boyce said Woodward had consumed methamphetamine in the hours before he was strangled, smuggled into the jail by their other cellmate.
Though there were no witnesses, the defence argued "Woodward became violent after using the methamphetamine" and Thinn "strangled Woodward in self-defence, then called for help after Woodward collapsed".
Boyce argued the murder conviction should be reversed because the trial judge wrongly ruled crucial evidence about racial tensions, violence and politics in US prisons which supported the defence case was inadmissible.
This meant only one defence witness was ultimately called during the second trial.
The same evidence was allowed at the first trial, resulting in a hung jury, Boyce said.
The defence also argued Thinn was a vulnerable inmate due to his nationality, and that Woodward had bullied him and stolen his food.
"Thinn, as a foreigner in a cell with two inmates of another race, was especially vulnerable to violence and that failure to stand up to such bullying could place him at greater risk.
"This evidence would have increased the probability that Thinn 'actually perceived imminent threat of death or great bodily harm' from Woodward," Boyce said.
Other inmates gave evidence that Thinn had a greater need to act in self-defence, because he was from "Australia", had a thick accent and "didn't fit in".
Another said Thinn attracted attention for purchasing food from the commissary and selling it in exchange for other inmates' drawings.
"Everybody was, like, on him like flies, just trying to get something from him."
Thinn's lawyers wanted to call former inmates at the second trial to detail the violent culture behind bars.
But the trial judge did not allow it, ruling that unless the evidence showed Woodward had actually attacked Thinn, causing him to defend himself, it was irrelevant and inadmissible.
Boyce said this was wrong, depriving his client of a defence.
However court documents filed in response by prosecutors say the judge was right to omit "speculative evidence" about what happened in the cell.
"The proffered testimony regarding jailhouse politics had only a speculative connection to what happened between the appellant and Woodward, so it was property excluded as irrelevant," prosecutor Charles Ragland said.
He added that Thinn never claimed self-defence after the killing and there was no evidence that Woodward had threatened or attacked Thinn before he died.
Instead a prison staffer who saw them about 40 minutes before Thinn called for help said they were talking and laughing together "and seemed to be getting along".
Thinn's lawyer this month requested an oral appeal hearing, likely later this year.
The 19-year-old was found in a remote area in the hills of Upper Hutt.