Zhicheng (Michael) Gu denied killing Ricky Wang. Photo: Stuff / David White
The henchman who the Crown say was ordered by his drug boss to kill meth cook Ricky Wang has been found guilty of murder.
Over the last three and a half weeks, jurors at the High Court at Auckland have had an inside look into a drug syndicate who were involved in the methamphetamine business in New Zealand.
That business, and perhaps his greed, is what ended up getting Bao Chang (Ricky) Wang killed in August 2017.
Wang's remains were found in an unmarked grave off the Desert Rd in the central North Island in 2020, after a member of the drug syndicate told police about the murder.
On Friday after about 10 hours of deliberations, a jury delivered its unanimous verdict.
Zhicheng (Michael) Gu clasped his hands together and looked down as the verdict was read out. As the jury foreman read out "guilty" his previous emotionless face broke down. He put his hands on his knees and there were tears.
Drug boss, Jian Qi Zhao (Brother Six), already admitted ordering the murder after he became concerned Wang was trying to supplant him, kidnap or even kill him.
Gaoxiang (Gordon) Yu, also admitted his part in the murder. He told the court he held Wang down while Gu stabbed the meth cook multiple times.
Yanlong (Tony) Piao and Yuzhen (Clive) Zhang have also been sentenced after admitting their parts in the cover-up.
Piao was the man who in late 2019 told police about the murder. Police were eventually able to locate Wang's body using his phone location data from the time.
The Crown's case relied on the evidence of the members of the drug syndicate.
Brother Six, Yu and Piao all said Gu was the one who stabbed Wang to death after he'd been lured to a Massey home after a last supper at Seafood Paradise restaurant.
The Massey house where Ricky Wang was killed. Photo: Stuff / Jason Dorday
Wang was tied to a chair, questioned, Yu then held him down and put a towel over his head while Gu inflicted the wounds. That's what members of the drug syndicate told the jury and what the Crown's case relied on.
But Gu's lawyers said he was not a murderer.
Julie-Anne Kincade KC told the jury, in her closing, that all the other co-defendants are liars.
"Not one of them cared for the truth - all they cared about was themselves."
And Piao was the biggest liar of them all, she said.
"An audacious, arrogant and unbelievable man."
Kincade said her client wasn't a "tough, gang guy". He was just a meth cook who had, in early August 2017, got married and had asked for time off for his honeymoon.
She submitted Gu wasn't even involved in any of the discussions about the plan to kill and Yu was the one who killed Wang.
He was the one with the gang connections and the others had mixed together truth and lies because of what Piao told police.
"You might want to consider who had the means, motive and opportunity - the drug lord and Gordon to a lesser extent the gang enforcer," she said.
But the Crown said Brother Six was methodical, controlled, meticulous and carefully planned the murder.
Nathan said it just didn't make sense Wang would be killed at his own Symonds St apartment, like Kincade said.
He submitted there was an overwhelming amount of direct evidence that Gu was at the heart of the murder.
In the end, the jury agreed with the Crown and found Gu guilty of murder.
Justice Simon Moore convicted him, remanding him in custody to appear for sentencing in August.
This story was first published by Stuff.