Mihingarangi Tynneal Rameka in the dock in the High Court at Hamilton where she is fighting multiple charges, including that of murdering Sao Yean aka Sao Young, in March 2020. Photo / Belinda Feek
Mihingarangi Tynneal Rameka in the dock in the High Court at Hamilton where she is fighting multiple charges, including that of murdering Sao Yean aka Sao Young, in March 2020. Photo / Belinda Feek
Warning: Contains graphic content
A gang member was discovered dead with vomit around his head, while a friend at his New Year’s Eve party was seen frothing at the mouth after taking an “orange-coloured” powder.
Zahra-Rose Marsh saw Christopher Matatahi lying on his back on his bed during the party when everyone who took the drug, supposedly MDMA, experienced serious side effects.
Matatahi died, and the death later of Sao Yean, also known as Sao Young, along with the beating of two others in an alleged act of retribution, is now the subject of a murder trial in the High Court at Hamilton.
Neha Wiremu Grey and Daniel James Payne deny four charges, including three of kidnapping and one of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Mihingarangi Tynneal Rameka is defending seven charges, including three of kidnapping and three of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Anton Rite faces one murder charge.
Marsh told the jury she was drinking with Matatahi and another friend, Rhiannon Venk, at his house on New Year’s Eve in 2019.
Matatahi and Marsh had taken the MDMA by the time other partygoers began arriving, including Jesse Whitiora and his girlfriend, Grace McGrannachan. Rameka was also at the party.
After about 15 or 30 minutes, Marsh began feeling unwell, “like I had been tranquilised”.
“I was projectile vomiting. I couldn’t move my body much.”
Asked about her temperature by Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam, Marsh replied, “I would say it was through the roof”, adding she was sweating “a lot”.
Given her state, she and a friend decided to go outside and sit on the grass as their surroundings “were becoming quite enclosed at that point”.
Asked about Matatahi, she recalled him telling her “to stop fighting the feeling”.
About 20 minutes later she went back inside and saw Matatahi lying on his bed, and Rameka was “in and out of consciousness”.
She eventually fell asleep in a friend’s vehicle before waking and going inside, and being asked by a friend, “Wiz”, where Matatahi was.
She sent the friend inside to check on Matatahi and he returned to say the gang member was dead.
Marsh saw Matatahi lying on his back on the bed, with vomit around his face, while McGrannachan was frothing at the mouth, “barely conscious”, she said.
Marsh, McGrannachan and Whitiora were all hospitalised.
Rameka’s cousin and flatmate at the time, Shanelle Horotini, gave evidence of how Rameka was upset after learning her friend Matatahi had died.
Daniel Payne in the dock in the High Court at Hamilton standing trial for the murder of Sao Yean, also known as Sao Young, in March 2020. Photo / Belinda Feek
“She said that it was out of it how the drugs did this to everyone at the party,” Horotini said, adding that Rameka seemed “hurt and upset about it”.
“I think she [Rameka] was more upset that she was the one who took the drugs to the party and that happened to their mate.”
Earlier the 26-year-old Horotini recalled how she and her cousins, including Rameka, smoked cannabis and had drinks in the shed of the Byron Rd property during the day of New Year’s Eve.
Rameka mentioned Matatahi was having a party at his Casey Ave house that night.
A friend of Rameka’s turned up with two other patched Mongrel Mob members, one called “Scar Dogg” who had a bag of “orange-coloured powder” he claimed was MDMA.
Forensic testing would later discover it was laced with heroin.
Rameka bought it off him for $20 and Horotini dipped her finger in it saying, “it tasted like dirt”.
They then left for the Casey Ave party, with Rameka in possession of the drugs, the Crown said.
After arriving, Rameka and Matatahi were seen leaving the lounge together before he returned with the bag of “orange-coloured” powder.
He then poured the contents on to a small desk and used a card to cut it up into lines for everyone, including Rameka.
They all eventually went to bed before Horotini woke to the news, from Rameka, that Matatahi had died.
Neha Wiremu Grey. Photo / Belinda Feek
Rameka wouldn’t let it go.
“Every day [Rameka] would bring up what happened to [Matatahi] and how to get revenge for his death.”
The Crown case
Opening the Crown case, prosecutor Duncan McWilliam alleged all four defendants were at Rameka’s Byron Rd home in Hamilton when Sao Yean was either fatally, or critically, beaten and all of them acted with a common unlawful purpose.
He submitted their case centred around Rameka who they allege provided drugs that led to Matatahi’s death and hospitalised three others.
That allegedly led Rameka to seek retribution, later drawing in Payne, and leading to two serious beatings of other victims before Yean was brought to her Byron Rd home during the early hours of March 13, 2020.
McWilliam said Yean was bashed so significantly he suffered fractures to his skull, jaw/chin area, eye socket, and hand, while his shoulder blade was fractured to the point it was a “clean break”.
Anton Rite in the dock at the High Court at Hamilton. Photo / Belinda Feek
Lawyer Jessica Tarrant, on behalf of her client Grey, told the jury the only thing he was responsible for was helping Rite dispose of Yean’s body in Gordonton.
That should only have seen him charged with being an accessory after the murder - not murder itself.
“He could not, and will not, accept responsibility for anything else.”
Counsel Quentin Duff - for Payne - said his client did not take part in any of the assaults and was not guilty of all charges.
He told the jury to instead listen to the motives of others.
