By Graig Kapitan of the NZ Herald
A young Killer Beez gang member who broke into a man’s South Auckland home and fatally shot him as the victim’s 6-year-old son slept nearby has been handed a lengthy prison sentence after a judge noted the botched robbery was just one part of a larger violent crime spree.
The 26-year-old, who for legal reasons cannot yet be named, was found guilty of Siaosi Tulua’s murder last November following a jury trial in the High Court at Auckland in which he and co-defendant friend Tamati Simpson were accused of two separate killings over the course of the 2019 spree.
In an unusual split decision, the defendant with suppression was acquitted of the second murder charge but found guilty of causing Tulua’s death and a raft of lesser charges. Simpson, meanwhile, was acquitted of Tulua’s murder but found guilty of causing the other death.
Prosecutors said Tulua, 39, was targeted because he was selling cannabis out of his garage, next door to the home where the defendant’s girlfriend lived. The defendant, then 21, had been looking to rob tinny houses and dealers.
Tulua was shot at close range, with the single bullet hitting his hand before entering his abdomen. The shooting appears to have been triggered by a sudden movement rather than having been planned, Justice Christian Whata determined last week as he considered the sentence, noting that gunpowder residue was found on the victim’s hand.
But regardless of whether the shooting itself was pre-meditated, the defendant had gone into the home illegally and with malintent, the judge said.
“You went to Mr Tulua’s house to rob him,” Justice Whata told the defendant.
He noted that it was alternatively suggested he had gone there to shut down or tax the tinny house on behalf of his gang – a motivation that the judge characterised as “the same if not worse” than a robbery.
Tulua was remembered during a series of emotional victim impact statements as “a humble and caring person for his family”. His death was “such a waste of a good man”, his sister told the defendant.
In a written statement that was read out in court, the victim’s son, now 11, said he still struggles with the loss of his father.
“I don’t know why these people wouldn’t just talk to my dad like grown-up adults,” he wrote. “Now I’m stuck being lonely, fatherless, in fear and also hurt.”
The boy’s mother recalled how she was tucking him in that night, “happy in life”, when the shot rang out and everything changed. Now, she said, her son gets trips to the cemetery to spend time with his father and has to make do with Tulua’s photo next to his cake on birthdays.
“How dare you!” she ended, her anger prompting her to go off script from the written statement that had been approved to read in court. “How dare you do that to my son, you f***ing murderer!”
Murder generally carries an automatic life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of no less than 10 years before the convict can apply for parole. However, murders committed in the course of another crime or during unlawful entry into a home require a minimum period of imprisonment of at least 17 years unless a judge finds such a term to be manifestly unjust.
Defence lawyer Ish Jayanandan suggested during the hearing that a 17-year minimum period would be unjust given the defendant’s young age at the time and other factors, including the outsized influence of his gang member uncle. Crown prosecutor David Stevens, meanwhile, suggested that the judge not only impose the 17-year minimum but add another two years on top of that.
The longer sentence would take into account other offences, including the incidents that were part of the spree, the Crown said.
The spree started in the early morning hours of April 17, 2019, when the first victim heard someone trying to bash his front door and he went to investigate. The defendant then fired a sawn-off rifle at him. The bullet missed the victim but was so close that shrapnel hit his face, Justice Whata noted. As a result, the defendant was found guilty at trial of discharging a firearm with intent to injure.
Three days later, the next two victims were targeted in quick succession, both cannabis dealers. The first was lured into a car under the guise of a sale, but when he got halfway in the car it sped off, trying to drag him. In the struggle that ensued, the defendant put a gun directly on the victim’s leg, but the victim fought back and was able to escape. Shortly thereafter, the car drove to Tulua’s house and the murder took place.
Tulua’s death went unsolved for some time, during which the defendant also committed a burglary. An associate of the defendant’s, also in on the burglary, pulled a gun on a neighbour when he tried to intervene. The defendant eventually emerged from the house with a jewellery box, the judge noted.
Had the 17-year minimum not been in play, Justice Whata said he would have settled on a minimum term of imprisonment of 14 years due to the defendant’s age and his difficult childhood.
His mother struggled with addiction and was attacked by his father in front of him, according to a report prepared for the hearing. Oranga Tamariki eventually removed the defendant from his parents’ custody and he was sent to live with his grandparents, where one of his role models became an uncle who had recently been released from prison. He was homeless at 13, joined the Killer Beez at 14, left school at 15, began what would become a daily meth use habit by the time he was 16 and was serving his first custodial sentence at 17, the judge said.
“I’m never out for long,” the defendant told a report writer. “This is all I know.”
Despite all that, a 17-year minimum term of imprisonment wouldn’t be manifestly unjust, Justice Whata determined.
“There was a clear and grave risk of lethal harm,” he said of the home invasion. “Your girlfriend lived next door, so you must have known there was a family present there.”
Because the defendant spent so much time in custody awaiting trial, he will be eligible to begin applying for parole after 16 years.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
