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WELLINGTON - Two men today pleaded guilty to the murder of a Wanganui toddler in an alleged gang-related drive-by shooting.
Two-year-old Jhia Te Tua died on May 5 last year after shots were fired at her parents' home in the Wanganui suburb of Gonville.
Karl Unuka Check and Hayden Wallace made their pleas at a depositions hearing in Wellington District Court late today. Two other men have pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Check and Wallace were among 12 men charged with her murder in an alleged gang-related drive-by shooting.
They will be sentenced in the High Court at Wellington in May 23.
Lawyers for the 12 had spent much of today talking to their clients about their options and at 4pm the court reconvened and Check and Wallace pleaded guilty to murder, Radio New Zealand reported.
Wallace was reported to be the man who fired the gun on the night that Jhia was killed, and a witness had earlier said he had heard Check give a direction to Wallace to shoot Jhia's father.
The Crown also withdrew charges against Wallace and Check of assault, unlawful assembly and burglary. Both men also pleaded guilty to participating in an organised criminal group, the Mongrel Mob.
James William Challis and Tyrone Temappi Box, the two men who were in the back of the car from which Wallace shot, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by an unlawful act and also to participating in an organised criminal group.
The murder charges against Challis and Box were withdrawn and they will also be sentenced in the High Court on May 23.
Three of the other accused, Noel Piha Broughton, Kenneth Smith and Chance Wairangi Church also had the murder charges withdrawn and pleaded guilty to being part of an organised criminal group.
Judge Russell Callander declined jurisdiction and they will also be sentenced in the High Court in May.
The remaining defendants, Ranji Tane Forbes, Michael Westley Kumeroa, Godfrey Thomas Muraahi, Erueti Chase Nahona and Richard Anthony Puohotaua, have had their murder charges amended to manslaughter and their depositions hearing will continue tomorrow.
A 13th man, Luke John Check, is charged with being an accessory after the fact and his depositions hearing will continue.
- NZPA
