A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
“My ute, my ute for free!”
That was Claude Sheridan’s gleeful chant during a phone video clip he made while driving a vehicle reportedly stolen from his cousin Chad the night of November 26 last year.
The clip was part of police evidence yesterday as the Crown case in the jury trial for Claude Sheridan, 35, and girlfriend Sarah Thornton, 27, concluded in Gisborne District Court.
Proceedings yesterday saw Thornton relieved of two of the three charges against her, which were dismissed. She is now only charged with being a party to Sheridan’s alleged demands for $5000 from complainant Robert Legge-Mulley.
A charge Thornton and Sheridan jointly faced of threatening to kill was withdrawn through lack of evidence. A charge of robbery Sheridan faced in relation to another of Chad’s vehicles was split so the contents of the vehicle could be treated separately.
Evidence yesterday included the video clip, Sheridan’s DVD police interview, and a revelation that the shed in which Mr Legge-Mulley claimed he was locked overnight might have been a disused chiller.
Police found Sheridan’s phone containing the video clip, the chiller and a watch matching one Mr Legge-Mulley claimed Sheridan stole from him, during a search of Sheridan’s Helyer Street, Ormond, property on November 30.
Sheridan claims he was trying to safeguard his cousin’s vehicles and is not guilty of any of the 12 charges he faces in relation to alleged incidents said to have begun at the Loisel Street home of Wendy Taylor. Sheridan’s cousin Chad Sheridan — who was in custody — often stayed there and had left vehicles there, along with some of his belongings in a shed.
Sheridan claims Mr Legge-Mulley made up allegations against him — that was a “crack” user, with a “hua of a habit” who had told police “a lot of sh**”.
Mr Legge-Mulley, who also sometimes lived at Loisel Street, was there early on the evening of November 26 when he claimed Sheridan, along with girlfriend Sarah Thornton, turned up demanded money, kidnapped and assaulted him, and drove him at knifepoint to a cemetery, where a gun was assembled, a tarpaulin laid out, and discussion had about chopping him into little pieces.
Sheridan then suddenly decided to go looking for Chad’s Bighorn vehicle, which was in the possession of Chad Sheridan’s then-girlfriend Samantha Las Vegas. Sheridan allegedly robbed her of it and many of her belongings, with which she was loading it to leave town.
She was unable to retrieve her things including a rottweiler puppy before Sheridan had Mr Legge-Mulley drive it under duress to his Ormond property. Sheridan returned en route to the Loisel Street house from where he stole Chad’s Ford Falcon ute. He followed Mr Legge-Mulley in it to Ormond.
Police believe the video clip they found was made by Claude Sheridan during that trip.
Mr Legge-Mulley claimed Sheridan locked him in a shed overnight at Helyer Street. It was too dark to see but it was smooth-walled, with perhaps a dirt floor.
The next morning he was driven into town by Sheridan and Thornton, who delivered the puppy to Ms Las Vegas’ mother, dropped a child at school, and bought petrol before letting him out on the side of Ormond Road.
Sheridan then stole Mr Legge-Mulley’s watch and bracelet, and again threatened his children. He said he knew where they lived, would board up their windows, and burn down their houses with them inside, Mr Legge-Mulley claimed.
Prosecutor Jo Rielly closed the Crown case yesterday. Defence counsel Tiana Epati, for Sheridan, and Michael Lynch (with Stephen Taylor), are expected to give their closing addresses to the jury today.
Mrs Rielly told the jury what had become clear in evidence was that witness’s loyalties in the past nine months had dramatically changed. The allegiances of people Mr Legge-Mulley once considered friends — Wendy Taylor, Claude Sheridan’s cousin Chad Sheridan and Samantha Las Vegas, had all shifted.
The evidence they first gave police supported his. But they did not stand by it in court.
However, what Mr Legge-Mulley claimed had to be the truth, Mrs Rielly said. His comment, “why would he have made all this up to get Chad’s stuff back or to cover up for him taking it himself?” was particularly insightful.
His narrative about what occurred was so detailed that he was either “the most contrived liar this town has seen in a very long time or someone who had suffered a significant number of wrongdoings and was then very let down by some of his associates”, Mrs Rielly said.
Mr Legge-Mulley gave his evidence in an open and frank way, Mrs Rielly said. What he described was unusual and a bit bizarre but the jury should take account of his lifestyle and those who shared his world, including the witnesses they had heard from and the surrounding circumstances of the case. It was not as unusual or bizarre as it might seem and completely plausible, Mrs Rielly said.
By contrast, Claude Sheridan told police he heard gang members were trying to take his cousin’s stuff, so he decided to pop over and check on the “old lady” at Loisels Street and make sure she was OK.
Conveniently, Ms Taylor suddenly asked him to get rid of Mr Legge-Mulley, who she did not want staying, and to take Chad’s vehicles.
Sheridan said Legge-Mulley willingly drove the Bighorn to Ormond, then returned him to town about 5pm. There was no visit to Ms Las Vegas.
Chad might have changed his story now but he originally told police no one had authority to take the vehicles — apart from Samantha Las Vegas in a limited way and, as evidence showed, perhaps Mr Legge-Mulley too.
Lots of lies had been told in this case, Mrs Rielly said. Ms Taylor lied to an experienced senior detective. Her evidence, and that given by Ms Las Vegas and Chad Sheridan, should be treated with great caution, Mrs Rielly said.
Proceeding