David Kuka murder trial: Witness recounts ‘terrifying’ Mongrel Mob encounter before death of friend

Tauranga man David Kuka, who was shot dead in February 2018, was described as a "lovely man". Photo / Supplied

Stewart Keepa knew something was amiss when he came home to find the front door slightly ajar.

He was the owner of a second-hand store in Tauranga, in an industrial building in the suburb of Gate Pā where he also lived upstairs.

It was February 11, 2018, a Sunday evening, and Keepa had just ducked out to take his cousin to the supermarket.

Worried that he didn’t have enough gas to make the trip, Keepa had borrowed the car of his friend, David Kuka, who also lived at the pawn shop.

After dropping his cousin home, Keepa arrived back at the Wilrose Place address shortly after 10pm.

“First thing I saw was the door slightly open and that was unusual, especially at that time of night,” Keepa said.

“I heard this horrible breathing, gasping for air, coming from upstairs in the kitchen where I last saw David.

“I called out his name, but all I could hear was gasping. I ran upstairs and there was David on the floor. I tried to wake him, to see what was wrong, but there was no response…no movement, no talking, nothing.”

Keepa was the first witness to give evidence in the High Court at Rotorua in the trial of three Mongrel Mob members charged with murder.

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• Crown alleges Mongrel Mob trio responsible for murder ...

David Kuka, 52, was shot twice that night and the police investigation into his death, Operation Ubertas, eventually led to the arrests of four men.

One of those men, Dane Mark Pukepuke, has admitted his role in Kuka’s murder, but the trial of the remaining defendants started on Monday.

Luke William Belmont, Maru Puriri Michael Wright, and Adrian John Rewiri have all pleaded not guilty to murder, with Rewiri also denying an alternative charge of being an accessory after the fact.

Luke William Belmont, left, Maru Puriri Michael Wright, centre, and Adrian John Rewiri have pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Kuka in Tauranga in February 2018. Photo / Andrew Warner

The Crown case is that the death of David Kuka could be traced back to another shooting at the same Gate Pā address six weeks earlier.

The victim on that occasion was Lance Wayne Waite, who was shot dead at the second-hand store by a small-time drug dealer on January 3, 2018.

Waite was a senior member of the Notorious chapter of the Mongrel Mob, and the day after his death, Stewart Keepa said three carloads of patched gang members turned up at the address.

The Mongrel Mob wanted to retrieve Lance Waite’s patch, but Keepa told them the leather vest was at the police station.

“I was told to hop in the car with them,” Keepa told the jury on Tuesday.

“I was very reluctant. But if I didn’t get in, I felt like there was going to be trouble.”

He drove to the police station with the gang members to retrieve Waite’s patch, but they were told the police were unable to release it yet.

Keepa was taken back to the shop, but it was not the last time that the Mongrel Mob wanted to speak with him.

He was later invited to the home of the president of the gang’s Tauranga chapter, who lived nearby and asked Keepa what he knew about the shooting of Lance Waite.

That meeting was calm but the next encounter was “terrifying”, Keepa said.

He was woken by the sound of a V8 engine in the driveway outside the second-hand store, followed by footsteps, and the voices of two men calling out to him.

They identified themselves as members of the Hastings Mongrel Mob, Keepa said, who ordered him to “open the f***ing door”.

Three patched members “barged in”, Keepa said, and he backed away up the stairs towards the kitchen.

One of the men stopped halfway up the stairs, while the other two followed Keepa into the kitchen and told him to sit down at the table.

One of the men was in his 40s, Keepa said, the other in his late 20s.

Keepa said the younger man was around 190cm tall, with black shoulder-length hair and bulldog tattoos on his face.

“He was the one intimidating me,” Keepa said, “shooting questions and asking me who was here at the time of Lance’s shooting.”

Keepa told the men he was present, as well as a woman who lived there, and David Kuka.

The gang member told Keepa to write the names down on a piece of paper, so he did.

“He kept on carrying on, asking ‘who else was there?’ I tried my best but he wanted more names, I think I made up a couple of names to shut him up,” Keepa said.

“He got more frustrated, more angry, more intimidating until the older one said ‘that’s enough’ and they left.”

The handwritten list of names was found later by police at the home of Luke Belmont, the Crown alleged in opening its case. Keepa was shown a photograph of the note and confirmed he wrote it.

Under questioning by Bill Nabney, the defence lawyer representing Belmont, Stewart Keepa confirmed he could not identify anyone from photo montages of suspects shown to him by the police.

Prosecutor Richard Marchant asked Keepa if he could remember anything else that the younger, tattooed gang member said to him.

“One thing really stuck with me, because he said ‘we want to know who else we should kill’,” Keepa said, in reference to the list of names.

“That really got to me, that scared me out of my wits.”

A few weeks later, David Kuka was dead.

He had been living in his car until he met Stewart Keepa, who was washing dishes at a dinner provided for homeless people in the city.

Keepa offered him a room at the second-hand store, where he also worked and practised traditional carving.

While Kuka was once a member of the Black Power gang, Keepa said that affiliation ended “years and years ago”.

“He wasn’t involved in any of that. David was a great help at the store. He was either at the store, with his whānau, or at church…he was a lovely man.”

Defence lawyers for the three accused men have urged the jury to carefully consider the evidence and not engage in speculation.

The trial before Justice Graham Lang continues.