The killing of two-year-old Jhia Harmony Te Tua in her Wanganui home last year was the result of a gang revenge attack, the High Court at Wellington was told today.
Hayden John Wallace, 27, Karl Unuka Check, 26, Ranji Tane Forbes, 21, Godfrey Thomas Muraahi, 27, Erueti Chase
Nahona, 20, Richard Anthony Puohotaua, 28, and Luke John Check, 24, all appeared in front of a jury of six men and six women.
Wallace, Karl Check, Forbes, Muraahi, Nahona and Puohotaua are charged with murder.
Forbes, Muraahi, Nahona, Puohotaua and Wallace are also facing a charge of being part of an organised criminal group.
Karl Check, Muraahi, Nahona and Wallace also faced an assault charge.
And Luke Check was charged with accessory after the fact to murder.
The men pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Grant Burston, appearing for the Crown, said in his opening speech that Jhia was killed during a drive-by shooting.
She was hit by a bullet, fired by Wallace from a high-powered rifle, while she lay asleep on a couch in her home in the suburb of Gonville on the night of May 5, 2007.
The shooting came after a day of gang tensions between the Black Power, of which Jhia's father Josh Te Tua was a member, and their rival gang the Mongrel Mob.
"It was a gang shooting," Mr Burston said.
All the accused were either patched Mob members, prospects wanting to be patched members or supporters of the gang, he said.
Tensions between the two gangs began at a rugby league game on the afternoon of May 5.
They continued later that evening at the house of a Black Power member, where the member was attacked by members of the Mob, resulting in the assault charge.
The violence culminated in the shooting of Jhia by gang prospect Wallace who was in one of three cars driving past the Te Tua home, Mr Burston said.
"The accused were all present and knew what was going to happen and were in the cars when the shooting took place."
The trial, before Justice Warwick Gendall, was expected to last about five weeks.
- NZPA
