A man who 14 years ago stabbed a bread delivery man who later died has been found guilty of his part in the vicious robbery of paralympian Dean Booth.
But a jury in the High Court at Auckland yesterday cleared two other men of conspiring to murder nine witnesses involved in the robbery case.
As an 18-year-old in March 1990 Benjamin Richard Simeon was jailed for seven years for aggravated burglary and the aggravated wounding of 37-year-old Raymond Bruce Jackson as he delivered bread to a Papakura dairy.
Mr Jackson died 12 weeks later.
At the time the Crown considered charging Simeon with murder, but his lawyer at the time, Chris Field, now Judge Field, successfully argued in the High Court that as Simeon had already pleaded guilty to aggravated wounding, that was a "complete bar" to a murder charge.
Yesterday Simeon, now aged 33, was convicted by a jury of aggravated burglary and the aggravated robbery of Mr Booth, who suffers from cerebral palsy, and his partner Emma Gray, who was paralysed in a car accident.
In October last year Isaiah Eugene Mokaraka, aged 27, admitted his part in the home invasion.
Mr Booth was struck several times around the face, head and body with a baseball bat wielded by Mokaraka after the pair burst into the couple's Mt Wellington apartment in September 2002.
He and Simeon then spent the next hour ransacking the property and stripping anything of value which they carried away in Mr Booth's Charade and another vehicle.
The jury heard that the evidence against the men was overwhelming.
Both left shoeprints at the scene, there was blood on their shoes and on Mokaraka's clothing, and property taken from the apartment was found in their possession.
The Crown alleged that after being put in Mt Eden on remand, Mokaraka was desperate to get off the robbery charge.
He was said to have threatened a witness, tried to get another inmate to take the blame and finally conspired with another inmate, Shane Anton Matthews, aged 35, to murder four witnesses, five police officers involved in the inquiry and another man, who has name suppression .
According to the Crown case, Matthews, who was due to be released from jail shortly after, was to be the hitman.
But the jury found both men not guilty of conspiracy to murder the 10 people.
Mokaraka was also cleared of attempting to dissuade a witness by threats from giving evidence.
The jury could not agree on whether Mokaraka tried to get someone else to take the blame for the robbery and the Crown has applied to a new trial on that count.
After the verdict Mr Booth and Ms Gray said they were relieved that it was all over.
"We are just looking forward to getting on with our lives and putting it all behind us," Ms Gray said.
Senior Detective James Anderson, one of those on the alleged hit list, and Detective Sergeant Richard Wilkie said they were pleased with the robbery conviction but disappointed with the other verdicts.
Matthews, who had been due for release a year ago tomorrow, finally walked free from court yesterday after spending all that time on remand.
Justice Geoffrey Venning remanded Simeon and Mokaraka in custody for sentencing next month.
Man found guilty of robbing paralympian
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