Two cousins on trial for the murder of a man in Māngere last year have been found guilty.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Abraham Tu'uheava, a patched Nomads member, was shot dead and his wife Yolanda severely injured on Greenwood Road last May.
For the past four weeks Fisilau Tapaevalu, 32, and Mesui Tufui, 26, have been on trial in the High Court at Auckland.
This afternoon, after deliberating for two days the jury of five women and six men returned unanimous guilty verdicts.
They found the cousins were both guilty of murder and attempted murder; charges a third man Villami Taani, also their cousin, had previously pleaded guilty to.
Abraham Tu'uheava. Photo: Facebook
The court had heard the killing may have been a hit ordered by the Comancheros gang in Australia over bad blood between the gang and Mr Tu'uheava, a patched Nomads member.
The Crown's case was that all three men - Taani as the principal offender, Tapaevalu and Tufui - worked together to execute the killing and the two defendants were now lying about their involvement.
Tapaevalu maintained he and Tufui were at the Greenwood Road meeting but he didn't know about a plan to hurt the Tu'uheavas and fell asleep in the car before waking up to gunshots, fired by his two cousins.
Tufui told police he was never at the Greenwood Road and it was a case of mistaken identity; Tu'uheava's wife, Yolanda, having identified him as one of two shooters from a photo board.
Mrs Tu'uheava, who was shot twice in the head and still has a bullet lodged in her brain, gave evidence at the start of the trial but struggled to remember parts of the shooting.
She said she stayed in the car for the late night meeting but could hear her husband laughing and talking in Tongan while she played on her phone.
The next thing she remembered was her husband screaming and seeing a man she later identified as Taani pointing a gun at him.
She said when she got out of the car a younger man was pointing a gun at her and she begged for her life, at one point telling the men she was pregnant.
The court heard the couple ran down the rural stretch and hid behind a tree in a desperate bid to escape the men but they followed them and ordered the pair to get on their knees.
Mrs Tu'uheava said she was then shot and the last time she saw her husband was as he was running towards their car before being gunned down.
Mr Tu'uheava died quickly while Yolanda, who was shot twice in the arm and twice in the head, pretended to be dead on the grass roadside.
She told the court she dragged herself closer to the road after the men left the area and was spotted by a motorist in the early hours of the morning.
The extent of Tapaevalu and Tufui's involvement with the Comancheros was disputed throughout the trial.
Last week the jury watched a covert video of a gang meet up at Panmure Basin on 9 May, eight days after the shooting.
At the meeting Tapaevalu said he touched a set of 'rockers' (gang labels sewn onto the top and bottom of vests) and shook everyone's hands.
It was the Crown's case that this was a promotion in the gang for his involvement in the Greenwood Road shooting but Tapaevalu strenuously denied this.
He told the court he was dealing methamphetamine with Taani, a patched Comancheros member, but turned down the promotion from 'run around' to 'prospect' that day because he didn't want it.
This afternoon Justice Lang convicted the men and remanded them in custody for sentencing on 2 August.
Taani will be sentenced on 23 July.