All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
Gisborne Herald
  • Gisborne Herald Home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport

Locations

  • Gisborne
  • Bay of Plenty
  • Hawke's Bay

Media

  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Gisborne Herald

Mob pair guilty of murder of innocent bystander on Titoki Street

Gisborne Herald
25 May, 2023 09:09 AMQuick Read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

George Hallet Walker  (left) and Mercedies Grace (right)
George Hallet Walker (left) and Mercedies Grace (right)

George Hallet Walker (left) and Mercedies Grace (right)

A jury deliberated for three hours yesterday before finding Mongrel Mob couple George Hallet Walker and Mercedies Grace guilty of murdering Gisborne woman Maraea Smith.

Ms Smith, 36, was shot dead on Titoki Street about 9.55pm on March 25, last year.

The jury accepted the Crown case that Walker, 37, fired two shots from outside his distinctive grey ute as it idled at the Childers Road end of Titoki Street, and that Grace, 31, drove him to and from the scene. She was found guilty as a party to the murder.

The Crown said Walker mistakenly thought he was firing at rival Black Power affiliates in retribution for their attack on a car during an altercation at a Mongrel Mob house earlier that night in which Grace’s hand was wounded.

Walker intended to kill someone, albeit not Ms Smith, or was reckless as to whether he might do. Grace must have known Walker had the gun and what was about to ensue.

Keep up to date with the day's biggest stories

Sign up to our daily curated newsletter for the day's top stories straight to your inbox.
Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time.
By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“Why else take a gun to a gang fight?”

Extreme violence was par for the course in the gang world, Cameron Stuart said in closing the Crown case on day eight of the trial on Tuesday. Evidence put the couple together at the right times for them to have acted in concert.

Walker had the motive, means and opportunity to be the gunman, and with gang tensions high he had already — ahead of the shooting — engaged in some “very dangerous behaviour”, Mr Stuart said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Angry and aggressive, he drove his ute around the neighbourhood at speed, erratically and on the wrong side of the road. He yelled Mongrel Mob slogans and called for a gang hit on the rivals. When he couldn’t muster support, he rammed the Black Power car.

He then went to the couple’s cabin nearby on Childers Road to get his firearm, spotting Grace on the way and giving her a ride on the bonnet of the ute.

Grace knew what Walker was about to do, she witnessed the provocation and must have known he rammed the vehicle. She must have seen him get the firearm, and wanted to go with him. Blood found in the cab supported the Crown’s contention she drove the ute after suffering a wound to her hand.

A neighbour saw the couple leaving — Walker in the back seat with what looked like a firearm.

After hearing shots fired, the neighbour claimed to have heard them arrive home again and that Walker was upset, saying he’d “shot the wrong person”. Grace allegedly replied “shut the f*** up”.

The couple further incriminated themselves when they left town the next day and by their actions afterwards, Mr Stuart said.

The jury had the benefit in this case of not just subjective evidence — eye witness accounts of what happened — but also objective evidence, which was independent and indisputable, including a Facebook clip taken in the street that night, CCTV footage, photographs, DNA results, and intercepted phone communications, Mr Stuart said.

Walker’s counsel Shane Cassidy’s put it to the jury that the fatal shot did not come from the Childers Road end of Titoki Street but was fired from the other direction - and not by Walker.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

If the shot that killed Ms Smith had come from where the Crown alleged, Ms Smith would have been shot in the back, not her chest, Mr Cassidy said.

Regardless of Walker’s involvement in events immediately before Ms Smith’s death, he was not responsible for what happened as she was running away from him. Even if he was the person that got out of the back of his own truck, even if he had fired a shot from a firearm, even if he thought he might have been responsible, he could not have been - the evidence proved it.

Ms Smith was likely caught in a cross-fire during a gang confrontation.

No one had identified the person who fired the fatal shot. It might not have been anyone associated with Black Power but the evidence pointed to it, given what had happened earlier that night and given a witness heard the group talking of getting guns.

Mr Cassidy invited the jury to conclude Walker was the only person who had driven his ute that night.

It was not disputed the ute was at the Childers Road end of Titoki Street when the shots were fired. However, Walker was not one of the shooters and neither was anyone else associated with him or his vehicle. There was no evidence someone who got out had a firearm.

Grace’s counsel Adam Simperingham’s submissions echoed Mr Cassidy’s.

Like Mr Cassidy, he rejected the neighbour’s evidence as wholly unreliable, Mr Simperingham calling it “completely contrived”.

He said the case against Grace was purely circumstantial; the Crown couldn’t prove she was the driver - the blood evidence didn’t help. And, if Walker was the driver, then of course she wasn’t.

In summing up, Justice Churchman said that in considering Mr Cassidy’s theory about the case the jury should consider whether the Black Power affiliates involved in the earlier dispute went in the direction Mr Cassidy suggested, the implication there might have been a firearm in their vehicle and if anyone had identified one. The jury should also consider if Ms Smith’s sister - who was with her when she died - might’ve been mistaken about the direction Ms Smith was facing, and where all the other witnesses said the sound of the gunshots came from.

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Gisborne Herald

Gisborne Herald

Passion still burns for the game after 40-year rugby journey

08 Jul 06:00 AM
Gisborne Herald

'Legacy of kapa haka is alive and thriving': Vibrant competition unites region

08 Jul 04:00 AM
Gisborne Herald

MTF Awapuni speedway named Most Improved Speedway of the Year

07 Jul 11:07 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder
New Zealand

'The truth will come out': Scott Guy's parents speak 15 years after unsolved murder

08 Jul 09:03 AM
Family appalled after 99yo's landline left disconnected for days
New Zealand

Family appalled after 99yo's landline left disconnected for days

08 Jul 08:26 AM
'Disgraceful act': Historical graves damaged in Auckland
New Zealand

'Disgraceful act': Historical graves damaged in Auckland

08 Jul 08:25 AM
63,000 lockdown breaches reported as Covid inquiry reveals impact
New Zealand

63,000 lockdown breaches reported as Covid inquiry reveals impact

08 Jul 08:11 AM
CCTV footage shows what daughter did in the wake of allegedly murdering her mother
Crime

CCTV footage shows what daughter did in the wake of allegedly murdering her mother

08 Jul 08:00 AM

Latest from Gisborne Herald

Passion still burns for the game after 40-year rugby journey

Passion still burns for the game after 40-year rugby journey

08 Jul 06:00 AM

Albie Gibson was a driving force behind the rise of the Māori All Blacks

'Legacy of kapa haka is alive and thriving': Vibrant competition unites region

'Legacy of kapa haka is alive and thriving': Vibrant competition unites region

08 Jul 04:00 AM
MTF Awapuni speedway named Most Improved Speedway of the Year

MTF Awapuni speedway named Most Improved Speedway of the Year

07 Jul 11:07 PM
Most of $20k goal for Gisborne boy’s urgent cancer treatment raised in 48 hours

Most of $20k goal for Gisborne boy’s urgent cancer treatment raised in 48 hours

07 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Gisborne Herald
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Gisborne Herald
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search