The short sad life of a youth who took the wrong path

Michael Heremaia

Michael Heremaia quit school, left home and devoted his life to crime. His father, Jack Heremaia, said his son sometimes came home and said: "I don't think I will live to see my 16th birthday."

He didn't. The wayward South Auckland youth was brutally slain in November last year, aged 15.

Michael Heremaia had liked rapper 50 Cent and hated school. His father said Michael was "afraid of nothing" and did not know the words "walk away".

His sister said her brother took the wrong road in life.

Both parents, who were separated, tried their best for him. After he left Otahuhu College half way through the third form, his sister tried to get him into alternative education programmes, but he was expelled from one for smoking cannabis.

His mother worried that she did not give him enough attention because his big brother Steven - a national boxing champion - was always in the limelight.

Michael had just as much sporting talent. He also boxed, but at the King Cobra gym.

With nowhere left to go in the education system, and probably too young and under-qualified to get a job, he moved into a seedy house at the end of a cul-de-sac at 18 Appleby Place, Mangere. The property was a tinnie house - used for selling drugs - and was overseen by the King Cobras.

There was no carpet and no electricity. Wax on a partition near the front door marks the place where Michael Heremaia placed candles.

From time to time he would return to his father's home, but mostly he stayed at the tinnie house.

When he was not working, 19-year-old brother Matthew used to watch out for him, said his father. Matthew would take him to dinner at McDonald's or KFC.

Michael Heremaia, who neighbours called the "enemy in the street", may have seen running the tinnie house as an entry to the gang.

A King Cobra member who knew Michael Heremaia said the youth and his brother both stayed at the tinnie house because they had girlfriends and did not feel comfortable about going home.

The gang was more interested in Matthew as a prospective member, he said.

Before Michael Heremaia's murder on November 8, Matthew Heremaia had complained to the gang hierarchy that three men were skimming money from profits, and that his younger brother was not being looked after.

The gang bosses put in new management, and the three men were told to stay away from the house.

They were King Cobra members - Benjamin Red Tumahai, 21, and Ofisa Andrew Kopelani, 23, of Mangere, and James Michael Leuluaialii, 26, of Orakei.

Early on the night of the killing, Tumahai and Leuluaialii went to the house with another man. They were abusive, and took $40 before leaving.

Later, at a party, Tumahai was heard saying he was going to kill someone.

Full of anger and resentment towards both Matthew and Michael Heremaia, Tumahai, Leuluaialii and Kopelani went back to the tinnie house.

They were going to teach the Heremaia boys a lesson - you don't nark on patched gang members, Crown prosecutor Mike Heron said in the High Court at Auckland.

Leuluaialii and Tumahai went inside and found another man, Michael George Brown Afeaki, lying on a couch in the house. Leuluaialii held Afeaki down while Tumahai stabbed him in the chest and the arm.

When Michael Heremaia, who had been sleeping in the bedroom, stepped in to help his friend, Afeaki made his escape.

As he fled, he saw Leuluaialii push Michael against a wall. Leuluaialii and Tumahai stood over Michael with a knife as he pleaded for his life. "What did I do? What did I do?" he said.

As he screamed, the knife was plunged into his body.

His killers stabbed him more than 30 times. The knife went into his neck, his head, his chest - and at times, it plunged right through him.

Kopelani waited in the car until he went inside at the very end of the slaying.

Neighbour Coralie Leef heard yelling and screaming from 3am. It went on for five to six minutes. She heard voices saying "hold him".

She saw a car reverse down the driveway and Kopelani go into the house. Then three men came out. After some more coming and going, they drove off.

As the attack was unfolding, Afeaki climbed a neighbour's fence and got a taxi to the Heremaia family's house to tell them what had happened.

Michael Heremaia's father and sister went to the tinnie house where they found the grisly scene. His sister screamed. His father said "that's Michael", when he saw his son's body lying on the kitchen floor.

The landlord said that at the time of the murder he was renting the house for $275 a week to two men, one of whom he knew as "Keith". One of the men rang the Monday after the murder saying they no longer wanted to rent the house. Soon after, police rang him to tell him what had happened.

Two of Michael Heremaia's killers, Kopelani and Leuluaialii, were found guilty of murder by a High Court jury on Wednesday night.

They were also found guilty of attempting to murder Michael Afeaki, and will be sentenced next year.

Tumahai pleaded guilty to the murder earlier in the year and has been sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison.

Jack Heremaia said he was "elated" with the verdicts this week.

A family now live at 18 Appleby Place. The house has been freshly painted, renovated and sold to Housing New Zealand.

New white tiles and a green formica bench cover the murder scene. There is new carpet in the lounge.

The mother who lives there said people had on occasion come to the door asking for drugs.

Turnover of thousands a day 

Tinnie houses like the one where Michael Heremaia died traditionally sell small amounts of cannabis - enough to make a few joints - wrapped in tinfoil, hence their name.

However, police believe a variety of other drugs may also be available through them.

The houses are frequently run by gangs, often using young prospects hoping for membership, or else the gangs demand "tax" from independent operators.

Busy operations are said to produce a daily income of between $1500 and more than $2000, although police have been told of houses which bring in much more.