Three inmates guilty of prison murder

Three men have been found guilty of murdering Tue Faavae in the high security Auckland Prison at Paremoremo in 2009. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Three prisoners were this afternoon found guilty of murdering a fellow inmate.

The three accused, whose names are suppressed, were found guilty by a jury in the High Court in Auckland of murdering Tue Faavae in the high security Auckland Prison at Paremoremo on March 1, 2009.

The jury went out about 1.35pm yesterday and returned its verdicts about 4pm today.

The Crown argued that Faavae, a member of the Bloods gang, was strangled in a planned hit involving the accused, who were members of the rival Crips gang, in retribution for him yelling a Bloods slogan following the beating two weeks beforehand of a Crips member.

The Crown's case was that two of the accused men were directly involved in the killing, while a third, who was not in the same area of the prison, was a "puppetmaster" who sent incriminating texts calling for Faavae to be killed.

One of the accused said he carried out the killing alone but argued that it amounted to manslaughter and not murder.

Lawyer Marie Dyhrberg, for the alleged puppetmaster, said he denied sending the texts calling for Faavae's death.

But she said if the jury found against him, there was a dispute between the parties on the translation of the texts from Tongan.

Lawyer David Niven, for the third accused, said he had nothing to do with the killing.

The trio will be sentenced on July 7.

- NZPA