A meth-dealing Comancheros gang member who was caught with a cache of 3D-printed military-style assault rifles following a police chase has been allowed a sentence reduction because the Auckland prison he was in while awaiting trial failed to keep him safe.
Jason Leota, 37, was already facing multiple drug supply charges when he returned to jail in August 2023, after absconding from a residential rehab facility while on electronically monitored bail, then fleeing in a stolen $70,000 ute containing the 3D-printed armoury.
He was still in jail awaiting trial nine months later when he was attacked by a group of Mongrel Mob and Black Power members as part of a brutal power play against the Comancheros at Mt Eden Correctional Facility, a Manukau District Court judge was told at Leota’s recent sentencing for nearly 20 charges.
His head was stomped multiple times after he lost consciousness, and he now struggles with memory loss and likely suffers a traumatic brain injury, his lawyer said.
“There is no doubt that the consequences of that assault appear to be quite significant and they will make your ability to cope in prison more difficult,” Judge Richard McIlraith noted as he allowed the prison sentence he was considering to be reduced by 10% for the “organised and quite horrific” bashing.
“It strikes me as only fair ... not only because of the effect it will have for you ... but also because you are entitled to be kept safe in prison.”
The discount resulted in an end sentence of four years and 10 months’ imprisonment.
Leota’s legal trouble in recent years started in October 2022, when police executed a search warrant at his Māngere home.
He was initially charged with two counts of possession of methamphetamine for supply - carrying a maximum possible sentence of life imprisonment - but Judge McIlraith later acquitted him of the most serious charge, involving 3.9kg of the drug that was allegedly found in the home’s roof cavity.
He pleaded guilty to the second charge, involving 7g of the drug found in a wheelie bin near where Leota was located that day.
Inside the home, police also found scales, a drug cutting agent, $7685 cash, an ammunition clip and about 72g of cannabis located inside a box along with letters addressed to the defendant.
Police also seized and forensically examined Leota’s cellphone, uncovering 22 occassions in the month before the raid in which he offerd to sell meth or illegal psychoactive drug GBL. All of the transactions, however, appeared to be at street level rather than in bulk quantities.
Leota was bailed to the Grace Foundation four months after the search warrant and managed to stay out of further trouble for about six months, although police noted that the Ford Ranger Leota was later found in was stolen by an unknown person in April 2023, approximately two months into the defendant’s electronically monitored bail.
Police patrolling Manukau noticed the vehicle in August that year, deeming it suspicious and following it into a nearby carpark due to it having false plates.
At the carpark, Leota leaned out the window and looked at the officers, who responded by activating their lights. He sped off when the officers got out of their vehicle to approach him.
In the minutes that followed, Leota was observed driving on the wrong side of the road, including a roundabout, and through a red light before entering the wrong side of the motorway via the Lambie Dr off-ramp. Police abandoned the pursuit for safety reasons.
But the escape would be short-lived.
“During this time, the defendant continued westbound in the eastbound lane of State Highway 20 at high speed, driving towards oncoming traffic,” court documents state.
“The defendant then exited State Highway 20 at Cavendish Drive, driving down the eastern on-ramp towards oncoming traffic. The defendant then turned right onto Cavendish Drive on the wrong side of the road, dodging other motorists.”
He ran another red light and turned into a street that was closed due to overnight roadwork.
“The defendant drove around a traffic management attenuator truck and through road cones, forcing roadworkers to take evasive action to avoid being hit by the defendant’s vehicle,” documents state.
The Police Eagle helicopter picked up the trail a short time later, locating the stolen ute outside a Papatoetoe address and the defendant hiding under a nearby carport. A police dog was brought in to help make the arrest.
At an adjacent property to where Leota was arrested, police found a plastic bag containing his driver’s licence and 83g of methamphetamine.
Then they searched the truck and found a trove of other contraband. It included four 3D-printed military style semi-automatic centrefire assault rifles, a similar rifle that wasn’t 3D printed, a loaded .357 Magnum pistol, about 300ml of GBL, more than 300 rounds of ammunition and eight prohibited magazines, some of which were loaded.
Police also found spare EM bail ankle bracelet parts and what appeared to be a device to remove the anklet.
“The defendant was not wearing his EM anklet when arrested,” court documents state. “Police phoned the EM bail monitoring team, who stated that the defendant was still tracking to his bail address [at the Grace Foundation in] Papatoetoe.”
His phone was again confiscated and forensically examined, revealing 13 occasions in the five weeks prior in which he had supplied or offered to sell methamphetamine or GBL.
The litany of charges grew by one final offence about two weeks after the arrest, when a heated prison phone call with his then-partner was recorded and later reviewed by investigators.
“During the phone conversation, the defendant threatened to kill the complainant by shooting her in the head and cutting her throat,” court documents state. “The defendant threatened to kill the complainant eight times during the 15-minute phone conversation.”
At the recent sentencing hearing, defence lawyer Jasper Rhodes suggested that the 3D guns found in the stolen vehicle looked more threatening than they actually were.
“These ones break down very, very quickly,” he said, referring to advice he had received from his client. “They fire two or three shots and then they jam up.”
He described Leota as someone who had a good upbringing and potential - both scholastically and with sports at school - before he was led astray by addiction and gang association. It was important to note, he said, that Leota “wasn’t making tens of thousands of dollars” but was mostly dealing drugs at a base level to feed his own addiction.
He said he was “cautiously optimistic” about Leota’s recent efforts at rehabilitation.
Rhodes asked for an end sentence of four years and six months’ imprisonment, while Crown prosecutor Usha Keller argued for six years and eight months.
Judge McIlraith was sceptical about assertions Leota was a low-level methamphetamine dealer but acknowledged it couldn’t be proven otherwise and so had to be disregarded for purposes of sentencing.
“The reality is you were a consistent and frequent dealer of methamphetamine,” he said, adding: “The number of firearms that were found in the vehicle was alarming, to say the least.”
Much of his attention then turned to the prison attack Leota had endured.
There had been an unusual alliance between the mostly adversarial Mongrel Mob and Black Power members on the morning of May 28 last year as they jointly lashed out at Leota and two other Comancheros members in the prison dayroom without warning, the court was told.
The incident was captured on CCTV and six people were later charged.
At the exact same time Leota was standing in the dock in the Manukau District Court, five of the attackers were being sentenced in the Auckland District Court.
Court documents state Leota was punched in the head and knocked to the ground by fellow inmate Henry Walters. The others then rushed in and began punching and kicking him repeatedly until he lost consciousness.
“As [he] lay stiff and unable to defend himself, his head was forcefully stomped on and kicked multiple times before Corrections staff intervened,” according to the summary of facts for the men who assaulted him.
“As a result of the assault, [he] received facial injuries including bone fractures, several cuts to his face and severe facial bruising.”
Walters was sentenced to three years and one month’s imprisonment for wounding with intent to injure and a concurrent 10-month sentence for assault with intent to injure.
Other prison attack sentences included:
Of the three people targeted by the group, Leota’s injuries had been the most extensive. Judge McIlraith noted they are likely to have a significant impact on his cognitive abilities.
“It was horrible to read,” he said of the Auckland District Court group’s summary of facts.
“Nothing excuses your offending, Mr Leota, but you did not deserve that.”
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.
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One victim's son is appealing for information about the ute involved.