Kuka and Komisi Lepupa were sentenced in the Auckland District Court.
After participating together in an armed Halloween night home invasion three years ago, terrifying a woman who was alone inside the targeted West Auckland flat, brothers Kuka and Komisi Lepupa went their separate ways.
Kuka Junior Lepupa, a self-described drug debt collector, would be arrested with a cache of weapons minutes after the burglary, only to attack a person in a different home one year later while on bail and then orchestrate a plan from inside jail to pervert justice by corrupting a witness to the second offence.
Younger brother Komisi Lepupa, a Comancheros gang member, was arrested one week after the Halloween night incident. While sitting on the kerb in handcuffs, he threatened to have the gang shoot the arresting officer in the back before he stood up - with hands still bound - and kicked the officer in the knee.
The brothers greeted each other warmly earlier this month as they were reunited in an Auckland District Court dock to be sentenced together for the joint burglary and the separate crimes that followed.
CCTV cameras filmed the October 31, 2021, joint burglary as two vehicles - one stolen - pulled up to an Astley Ave flat in New Lynn around 5.45pm. Inside the cars were the brothers, then ages 33 and 32, as well as 23-year-old co-defendant Al-Mobarak Al-Enezi and three others who remain unidentified. Al-Enezi also pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year.
A man who lived at the address was outside when the caravan arrived and, recognising trouble, ran to his car and drove away. The men tried to stop him by brandishing a gun and hitting his vehicle with a hammer, but it didn’t work. In his haste, the victim left his partner alone inside the dwelling.
“The group of six offenders went to a locked back door and attempted to enter the flat,” according to the agreed summary of facts for the case. “One of the offenders announced, ‘Police, search warrant!’ They then moved to a front door at the flat as [the woman] was attempting to escape and lock the door behind her.
“[She] was accosted by some of the group, and she left the front door unlocked.
The men grabbed a laptop, a camera and other items before leaving in the two vehicles. But police caught up with Kuka Lepupa and Al-Enezi a short time later, stopping their stolen vehicle in Ranui. Inside the car, they found a sawn-off shotgun, a non-functioning gun that fired blanks, a hammer, a Taser and multiple rounds of ammunition. Al-Enezi admitted the “old-school wooden shotty” was his but claimed he intended to sell it to his cousin for pig hunting.
Both brothers pleaded guilty earlier this year to aggravated burglary, which is punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
Kuka Lepupa was charged one year after the burglary with assault with a weapon and injuring with intent to injure after showing up at a Blockhouse Bay home to meet a woman and being confronted instead by her husband.
“When [the victim] told Mr Lepupa to get out of the house, Mr Lepupa struck [him] multiple times in the head area and upper body with a crowbar found inside the home,” court documents state, adding that the victim also suffered a fractured finger as the result of a bite from the defendant.
Kuka Lepupa ran to a waiting car and drove away after the victim’s 15-year-old son grabbed the crowbar from him and fled the house. The victim’s partner also ran outside, screaming for help and banging on neighbours’ windows before calling 111. She later gave a sworn statement to police outlining what had occurred.
Seven months later, in May last year, Kuka Lepupa was still in jail awaiting trial on both charges when he called his partner as she met with the woman who had filed the sworn statement. On speakerphone, the inmate discussed with the witness a plan for her to file an affidavit stating she lied about the attack.
Several similar meetings were set up over the next two weeks until the witness did file a sworn statement and spoke with the officer in charge of the case, asking that the charges be withdrawn. Investigators, who had CCTV footage of the attack, declined.
“Needless to say, any attempt to pervert the course of justice ... is a serious matter,” Judge Steve Bonnar said during this week’s sentencing hearing. “It strikes at the heart of the criminal justice system.”
Defence lawyer Jasper Rhodes, representing Kuka Lepupa, noted that his client’s guilty pleas have saved taxpayers from footing the bill for what would have been three trials.
“He has been doing very well in prison with support,” Rhodes said, adding that his client is capable of making positive changes in his life if he can stay off drugs and alcohol.
The judge noted that Kuka Lepupa had a significant and often violent criminal history, with 47 previous convictions between 2004 and 2022. They included prior burglaries and another time when he attempted to pervert justice. A probation report prepared for the hearing described him as having a poor history of complying with electronically monitored bail, reluctant to engage in rehabilitation and being a high risk of reoffending and harming others.
Komisi Lepupa, meanwhile, had racked up 86 previous convictions between 2008 and 2020. Sixteen were what the judge referred to as violent or “quasi-violent” offences including weapons, while 16 more were for burglary. He also faced sentencing this week for a group of less serious charges including possession of a meth pipe, receiving a stolen vehicle and escaping Mt Eden Prison.
Defence lawyer Mark Ryan said a report into his client’s background by professor and gangs expert Jarrod Gilbert made for “compelling reading” about the deprived upbringing that some people experience in New Zealand. He noted that after his arrest, Komisi Lepupa was sent to a Wellington-based rehab facility, where he seemed to flourish.
“Komisi is a completely different person now,” Ryan said. “The progress he has made ... is startling. He has taken more steps to rehabilitate and change his lifestyle than we would normally see. He has taken a number of steps over and above what is the norm.”
Judge Bonnar allowed a reduction for both brothers’ rough childhoods, but he agreed with Crown prosecutor Amelia Mateni that it should not be the full amount the defence lawyers sought.
“There comes a point when the amount of credit that can be given for personal background has to be weighed against the fact the people continue to offend,” the judge told Kuka Lepupa. “In these circumstances, the protection of the community must take priority.”
He settled on an end sentence of five years and three months’ imprisonment for Kuka Lepupa.
A short time later, Komisi Lepupa was sentenced to three years and seven months’ imprisonment.
Both men, wearing matching long-sleeved white shirts, waved to young children and other family members who had gathered in the courtroom gallery for the hearing. Then they said goodbye to each other as security removed them from the dock one by one.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
The convicted drug dealer was a friend of murdered Outlaws president Peter Lui.