A Black Power associate fired shots at utes containing Mongrel Mob members outside the Westend shops in Rotorua. Photos / NZME
A Black Power associate fired shots at utes containing Mongrel Mob members outside the Westend shops in Rotorua. Photos / NZME
He pulled the trigger five times in a daylight gang shooting in Rotorua and was responsible for a string of car break-ins and had ridden dangerously on a trail bike.
But he isn’t going jail. And his identity will permanently be kept secret.
That’s because the now 19-year-old has had one of the worst childhoods a Rotorua District Court judge says he has ever seen.
The teen is now turning his back on gangs and crime and striving for a better life, despite his challenges, the judge said.
Judge Greg Hollister-Jones told the teen at his sentencing on Friday that to send him to jail would be a setback not only for himself, but for the community, because inside prison he would be forced to mix with different factions.
The teen was given a home detention sentence of nine months and was granted permanent name suppression.
The teen shooter was in a car with his then-Black Power associate, Himiona Buffett, when they pulled in behind two utes containing Mongrel Mob members on Malfroy Rd at the intersection with Old Taupō Rd about 12.30pm on September 19, 2023.
The teen covered his face, leaned out the passenger window and fired five shots at the rival gang utes.
One bullet shattered a ute’s rear window and another travelled through the open window of an uninvolved car waiting at the traffic lights, lodging in the interior lining. No one was hurt.
The teen admitted charges of unlawfully carrying a firearm and unlawfully discharging a firearm, as well as 13 other unrelated dishonesty and traffic-related charges he was responsible for in the months leading up to the shooting.
Buffett, who was the driver of the car, also successfully argued to the court he had changed since the shooting.
Buffett has distanced himself from the Black Power gang and was involved in a programme that worked with gang members who had turned their lives around.
In September last year, Judge Joanne Wickliffe sentenced Buffett to nine months of community detention and six months’ supervision.
Potential recognised
The teen’s sentencing has been adjourned twice. He was to be sentenced alongside Buffett in September last year but the teen cut off his electronically-monitored ankle bracelet and went on the run for more than three months.
He was eventually found and put into the care of a person in Rotorua who “saw potential in him”, Judge Hollister-Jones said.
The judge adjourned sentencing earlier this year, saying he wanted the teen to remain with the person to see if he made progress, which he said he had.
Judge Hollister-Jones said the teen was 18 at the time of the shooting and despite describing it as “extremely serious and dangerous” he said it was well documented teen brains weren’t developed at such an age.
From a starting point of four years' imprisonment, he reduced the prison term by 60%.
This included 10% for his age, 20% for his guilty plea, 20% for factors in his cultural report and 10% for his rehabilitation efforts.
This brought the prison sentence down to 19 months, which the judge converted to a home detention sentence of nine months.
Judge Hollister-Jones said the teen connected with wider family members while living out of town on electronically monitored bail the first time.
“They gave you a birthday party which I interpreted to be your first birthday party thrown for you, which tells a lot.”
He described some of the issues the teen had experienced growing up, many of which could not be publicly reported to protect his identity.
His mother became pregnant with him to a gang member when she was 13. She went on to have a relationship with another gang member and the teen’s life was immersed in gang culture where they often witnessed violence.
“You have committed this serious offending as a gang prospect ... I mention that because it is important that people understand that for some people this offending is not a matter of choice.”
“You have had some of the worst challenges in an upbringing I have seen.”
He said despite that, the teen had started to change.
“To send you to prison today would be a backwards step for you and a backwards step for our community ... That is because you would not have any option but to simulate or join factions of the prison population and the community would be at risk of similar offending in the future.”
Judge Hollister-Jones set in place post-detention conditions for six months after his release, disqualified him from driving for six months and ordered him to pay reparation totalling about $1000 to the owners of the cars he broke into.
He was also prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm for 12 months.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
