Justin Burke in the dock at the Christchurch High Court in October 2020 during his trial for the 2018 murder of Shayne Heappey. Burke is appealing his manslaughter conviction. Photo / Kurt Bayer
Justin Burke in the dock at the Christchurch High Court in October 2020 during his trial for the 2018 murder of Shayne Heappey. Burke is appealing his manslaughter conviction. Photo / Kurt Bayer
A Nomads gang wannabe has taken his appeal against a manslaughter conviction to the Supreme Court, claiming he didn’t know his friend had a knife when the pair set upon their victim.
Justin Richard Burke, 34, was sentenced to five years and two months imprisonment in February 2021 for his role in the killing of Shayne George Heappey in December 2018.
Heappey, 25, known as “Smiley”, was stabbed and cut at least 14 times over drug debt and a stolen car.
Burke denied killing Heappey but was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury after a two-week trial at Christchurch High Court in November 2020.
Burke took his case to the Court of Appeal, claiming the judge misdirected the jury in relation to his liability for manslaughter.
This appeal was dismissed in June last year, so Burke took his case to the Supreme Court, which granted him leave to appeal against his conviction.
On Monday at the Supreme Court, sitting in Christchurch, Burke’s defence team comprising King’s Counsels James Rapley and Stephanie Grieve, and barrister Sam Bird argued that their client did not know the “hiding” would result in Heappy’s death.
Rapley rejected the Crown’s suggestion it was the “planned fight that killed the victim” saying it was in fact the unexpected use of a knife, used Matthew Winara Webber.
He said the jury was asked if they thought Burke knew the assault would be dangerous, but the question of whether Burke foresaw a real risk that Webber would stab Heappey wasn’t posed.
Shayne Heappey died in hospital from his injuries. Photo / NZ Herald
Rapley went on to say that Heappey was bringing in money for the gang through drug dealing and Nomads president Randall Clinton Waho was “furious” after discovering he had been killed, indicating the death wasn’t planned.
He said it was the greater act of the stabbing that caused the death of Heappey, not the assault that Burke participated in and that Burke’s conviction should be quashed.
Madeleine Laracy for the Crown said that a secondary party will be liable for an offence committed by another person only if they could see that it is probable that the offence would be committed.
She said for a charge of manslaughter, there needs to be an unlawful act such as assault, which is what Burke participated in before Heappey’s death.
The Crown submissions will continue tomorrow.
During sentencing in 2021 the court heard how Heappey ignored repeated requests to settle a $300 debt and turn over a stolen Subaru car to Leone Sherie Cook – the 28-year-old stepdaughter of Nomads Christchurch chapter president Randall Clinton Waho.
She also wanted a stolen car that Heappey had been driving around in handed over to her and asked her stepfather to get involved.
Waho, 47, set up several meetings with Heappey, the court heard, but he never showed up.
That was a slight against the gang and its president, the Crown said.
The Crown said Burke had only been in town for a month but had started a relationship with Cook and was aspiring to join the Nomads and become a patched member.
Cellphone records and text data shows the gang wanted to put Heappey in his place and Waho had allegedly ordered a hiding.
Heappey knew he’d done wrong by the gang and was waiting to receive his punishment on December 8, 2018.
On the day the gang finally tracked Heappey down, Burke was with Webber when they knocked on a door in Russley and told Heappey to come outside.
A neighbour, the Crown said, heard a man saying: “Come here, it’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Burke admitted knowing the gang’s plan to give Heappey a hiding.
But he claimed he didn’t know that Webber, a 32-year-old gangland enforcer with a propensity for violence, had a knife and that he was going to stab Heappy.
After the attack, Heappey was bundled into a car and driven to Christchurch Hospital where he would soon die from his injuries.
After the assault, Burke fled to Dunedin where police caught up with him days later.
The Crown claimed Burke must have at least known Webber had a knife that day.
But defence counsel Stephanie Grieve said Burke was as surprised as anyone that Webber “went completely over the top” and beyond the gang’s plan to give Heappey a beating for some minor gang infringements.
“Mr Burke is not guilty of murder,” she told the jury.
“Mr Burke had no idea that Mr Webber would stab Mr Heappey. He didn’t know he had brought a knife.”
Grieve said that even in a gang like the Nomads, there was common sense and logic.
“People don’t get killed over $300 and a car,” she said.
The Supreme Court hearing before Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann, Justice Susan Glazebrook, Justice Mark O’Regan, Justice Joe Williams and Justice Stephen Kós continues.
