Mongrel Mob member Raymond Jury appears in the High Court at Rotorua charged with murder. Photo / Ben Fraser
A jury has found Mongrel Mob member Raymond Jury guilty of murdering Rotorua man Trevor Rikihana.
The jury returned the verdict after six hours of deliberation.
Women sobbed in the public gallery after the verdict was read.
Jury's daughter told her dad she loved him as he was taken away to which he responded, "I love you baby".
Raymond Jury was charged with murdering Rikihana at his Owhata address last year.
He has been remanded in custody until sentencing on October 2.
After the verdict, Rikihana's family hugged and cried outside court, with one relative saying "our uncle's got justice".
The trial started last Monday and was presided over by Justice Paul Davison and heard by a jury of eight women and four men.
Jury had previously pleaded not guilty to murdering Rikihana, 69, who, along with Jury, was a member of the Rogue chapter of the Mongrel Mob and died in the early hours of the morning on January 30, 2019.
The Crown argued Jury strangled, violently beat and dragged Rikihana around a lawn before dumping his body on a friend's driveway, while the defence said it was fellow gang member Rex Maney who caused the fatal injuries.
Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam told the court in his closing arguments that Jury was the only person who turned up at Rikihana's in the early hours of January 30 and went on to carry out a "prolonged violent attack" with "murderous intent".
Two Crown witness statements mentioned Jury and Rikihana had argued over money and something to do with a broken-down car the night Rikihana was killed, he said.
The argument escalated, with Rikihana's niece Lauren Eketone hearing "stomps and kicks" and her uncle "groaning" on the ground, he said.
He said Jury would have "towered over" Rikihana, who was an elderly man weighing 49kg and standing at 168cm tall.
For this reason, Jury would have known that the more than 70 injuries that Rikihana suffered, the majority around the head, face and neck, would have killed him, he said.
"It's deliberate... this is murder," McWilliam said.
However, Jury's lawyer Bill Nabney said it was now-deceased gang member Rex Maney who was responsible for the fatal blows.
In his closing arguments, Nabney said the text from Maney that Jury received on the morning of January 30 saying "the old c***'s dead" was "quite telling" in his involvement.
It "says it all", he said.
He did not dispute that Jury was at the scene the night of the murder, but he was not involved as Rikihana was his "old friend", Nabney said.
He said Maney had lied in the days following Rikihana's death by telling police he knew nothing about it when evidence later showed he did.
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