Clarissa Yates was convicted and sentenced to three years and four months for her role in a drive-by shooting in Kaitaia. Photo / NZME
Clarissa Yates was convicted and sentenced to three years and four months for her role in a drive-by shooting in Kaitaia. Photo / NZME
A Northland couple found guilty of being involved with another person in a drive-by shooting between rival gangs have gone to jail.
Clarissa Yates, 31, and Kyle O'Callaghan, 24, were found guilty by a jury in the High Court at Whangarei last month of one charge of wounding with recklessdisregard. The charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.
Both were charged with another person- a gang member- who pleaded guilty to the same charge and also appeared for sentencing but he has been granted interim name suppression.
Yates and O'Callaghan were with that man, a member of the Tribesmen gang, when the shots were fired in the early hours of February 3, 2016, on Archibald St in Kaitaia.
The gang member drove into Archibald St, slammed on the brakes, yelled out a statement, and opened fire with an AK-47 firearm. Four shots were fired and some ricocheted off the ground and hit a person on the leg.
Yates and O'Callaghan did not fire the shots but the jury found them guilty on the basis they were parties to the offending.
Justice Graham Lang said O'Callaghan, an associate of the Tribesmen gang, was assaulted when he ended up with Black Power members on the evening of February 12, 2016.
A standoff occurred between two people, one armed with a tomahawk, and O'Callaghan who had a baseball bat to defend himself.
