Avondale homicide: Sandy Younes, Mandal Sellick plead guilty to possessing gun, cleaning up scene after Mars Rakeem was fatally shot

Sandy Younes pleaded guilty to helping ex-partner Mandal Sellick clean the scene of a fatal shooting. Photo / Jason Oxenham

A man accused of murder and his former partner, accused of cleaning up the crime scene, have both pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them, just an hour before their joint trial was set to begin.

Mandal Francis Sellick will still go on trial for murder in the High Court at Auckland.

He pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm — a modified starter pistol — and posession of methamphetamine for supply. Both offences occured on October 2, 2021, the day that 28-year-old Mars Rakeem was fatally shot in the West Auckland suburb Avondale.

Co-defendant Sandy Younes stood in the dock, silently wiping away tears as Justice Kiri Tahana asked whether she intended to plead guilty to accessory after the fact to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Defence lawyer Tiffany Cooper, KC, spoke up after her client was unable speak, confirming that Younes did want to plead guilty.

“Thank you,” the young mother and personal trainer said to the judge as she left the courtroom on bail to await sentencing in April.

Mandal Sellick appears in the High Court at Auckland, where he will go on trial this week for murder. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Following the Saintly Lane shooting, police accused Younes of “altering the scene in order to enable [Sellick] to avoid conviction”, court documents state. She was also accused of threatening violence in an attempt to dissuade witnesses from co-operating with police.

Accessory to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily injury carries a maximim punishment of five years’ imprisonment.

The maximum sentence for posession of methamphetamine for supply is life imprisonment.