The president of the Tribesmen Aotearoa gang says he didn’t want a fellow member to be killed, and didn’t order a “hotbox” attack on him.
Mark “Shark” Hohua died after a series of assaults at president Conway Rapana’s Hodges Rd property in Waimana, Eastern Bay of Plenty, in June 2022.
The Crown has told a jury that the attack was a hotbox, ordered by Rapana. A hotbox is when a gang delivers a beating to one of its members.
Rapana was allegedly upset that Hohua, 48, had set up an automatic payment from the gang’s bank account for three online purchases.
In his closing statement, Crown solicitor Richard Jenson said Rapana had been heard to say that Hohua “needed to be killed” after Rapana found out about the money.
Rapana, vice-president Heremaia Gage, patched members Ngahere Tapara and Te Patukino Biddle, and prospect Dean Collier are on trial in the High Court at Hamilton, accused of Hohua’s murder.
Rapana’s defence counsel, Nick Dutch, said Hohua’s death was a “tragedy, we can’t shy away from that”.
“On 19 June 2022, Conway Rapana lost his friend of over 20 years.”
Rapana had previously taken Hohua to his house to help shake him out of his addictions, banning drinking and drugs, and instead getting him fit and strong.
Hohua’s partner, Rebecca Van Der Aa, testified that she “hated” Rapana. However, she admitted Hohua and Rapana had been friends and that Rapana had tried to help Hohua.
Dutch also reminded the jury about a time when Hohua texted his resignation to the gang in the weeks before his death.
“Conway’s response was, ‘Love you brother, I will miss you, my bro, Tribesmen’.
“Unfortunately, though, Mark Hohua died.
“No one wanted this to happen. Conway Rapana certainly didn’t want him to die.”
He disagreed with the Crown’s suggestion that Hohua’s death was planned.
“This was instead unplanned fighting.
“It was just chaos.”
There was also no hotbox, he said.
“It wasn’t a hotbox. The children wouldn’t have been there if there was a hotbox.
“[Rapana’s partner] wouldn’t have been there if it was a hotbox.”
In a text exchange with Gage, Rapana had described the incident as “a f***** ugly mess”.
“And that’s what it was,” Dutch said.
There was also no evidence that Rapana had ordered a hotbox on Hohua.
“There’s no evidential foundation.
“The text evidence is that no one knew.”
It was the opposite, in that Rapana hadn’t been heard urging the start of a fight, only to “stop” fighting.
“They just heard him say, ‘stop’ with urgency.”
Biddle’s lawyer, Matthew Goodwin, told the jury earlier in the trial that Hohua’s fatal injuries were caused when he fell on a set of steep and unstable concrete steps while fleeing the house.
Dutch reminded the jury that Justice David Johnstone had already made it clear that they could not convict the defendants of murder if they were not sure whether he fell.
“And you can’t guess, because if there are two or more logical conclusions, you can’t draw an inference that one is preferred to the other.”
He referred to the evidence of a pathologist, who said it was “an entirely possible scenario” that Hohua’s head injury was caused by a fall.
“Mr Rapana is not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter,” Dutch said.
Biddle’s counsel, Matthew Goodwin, said his client’s phone call from June 28, 2022, held several key markers of his defence.
He admitted giving Hohua “a hiding, or at least part of it”.
“He knew he’d made some sort of contribution to his death because he talks about manslaughter.
“Of course, he’s had no legal advice for that call ... but he was pretty much on the money because he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.”
In the phone call, played again to the jury, Biddle is asked by a friend about what happened and whether he was “going down for it, and did you give him the hiding?”
“Pretty much,” Biddle replied.
Asked whether he could argue that someone had “sent him” to do it, he replied, “Nah, nope”.
He then said his “intention was never to kill him”.
“The c**t just jumped off the bank and f***** himself up,” Biddle is heard saying.
Goodwin also said the Crown appeared to have taken only the pieces of Biddle’s evidence that suited its case.
“The staircase was a crucial factor ... in causing Mr Hohua’s injury.
“The Crown is scared of that reality, and that’s why they try to present a different picture to you.”
Jenson had submitted that Biddle was trying to “soften the blow” by admitting manslaughter on the phone.
“Really?” Goodwin asked. “‘I gave him a hiding and I’m guilty of manslaughter.’
“I’m not sure that’s what I would call softening the blow to a friend.
“He’s admitting culpable homicide, which is manslaughter.”
Goodwin said all he asked of the jury was to “apply fairness and common sense”.
“Isn’t the Crown really cherry-picking the evidence that suits them, then rubbishing the evidence that doesn’t?”
He said Biddle’s admission was a “major road block” for the Crown’s aim to secure murder convictions.
“The just verdict for my client is not guilty to murder.”
Rebekah Webby, counsel for Gage, said her client’s position was different from the others. Apart from his confirmation that he was at the property that day, there was no evidence that he did anything.
She cited the evidence of Hohua’s son, Matiu jnr, who went to the property with his father and Biddle that day.
“When he’s asked specifically about Mr Gage, he didn’t think he had seen Mr Gage, didn’t see Mr Gage hit ... kick ... or following any instructions, following anyone, or see anything.
“In fact, he didn’t see Mr Gage whatsoever around his father.”
She pointed to drone footage of them arriving; Matiu jnr said himself that he looked “pretty relaxed”.
“If you’re his son, you wouldn’t walk up to the property if you knew ... he was going to get a hotbox and start hugging people,” Webby said.
She said no one knew that Hohua was going to be at the property that day.
“The only proper verdict for Mr Gage is not guilty to both murder and manslaughter.”
Collier’s counsel, Bill Nabney, told the jury that his client was innocent.
“The first thing is that Dean Collier is not guilty of murder or manslaughter.”
He submitted that’s because the gang’s new sergeant at arms at the time, Wayne Kiri, who is now with Black Power Ruatoki, told Collier he would be taking the rap for Hohua’s death.
“Mr Kiri has the power to do that because he has the power in the Tribesmen ... he was the enforcer.
“He’s the man doing the clean up ... Mr Kiri wasn’t even at the house on the 18th but is organising what he wants to be the narrative.”
Kiri had also forced Collier to lie to the police on two occasions, and also about finding Hohua’s body on a bridge.
“But he was just doing what he was told to do.”
Hospital staff testified that Collier looked upset when dropping off Hohua.
Nabney said Collier was not part of any of the violence and was critical of the evidence given by Te Haruru Biddle, the brother of the defendant, and Hohua’s son, Matiu, which he labelled “inconsistent”.
Te Haruru Biddle gave “four different accounts as to what he says happened” and admitted, in his cross-examination, that he’d been told what to say about Collier’s involvement that day.
Tapara’s counsel, Caitlin Gentleman, told the jury there was no evidence her client was involved in any of the violence.
In fact, the first assault at the shed had either already started or “potentially finished” by the time Tapara arrived at Hodges Rd.
“The Crown is asking you to assume that because he was at Hodges Rd that day, that he was involved in the assault at the shed.
“There’s absolutely no evidence from anyone ... that Mr Tapara was in or near that shed.”
Three witnesses who were there that day had testified, but none had said that Tapara was near the shed.
As for a third alleged assault at the river, Gentleman said that it never happened because her client stopped it from happening.
He did clean up Hohua, washing off blood, using a water bottle.
The person the Crown was relying on, Te Haruru Biddle, couldn’t be relied on because he’d given four different accounts of how and where Hohua got into the Rav 4 to be taken to the river.
“No one at Hodges Rd saw Mr Tapara hitting or punching anyone.”
Tapara did take Hohua to the hospital because he cared.
“You heard [evidence] from the nurse that he was concerned, and said, ‘make sure you hold his head up’.
“This wasn’t a dump and run.”
She urged them to find Tapara not guilty of both murder and manslaughter.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.