Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa, 22, died in November 2021 after he was dropped off at a South Auckland medical facility with critical injuries. Photo / Supplied
Two brothers who were shown on CCTV footage dragging their bloody 22-year-old nephew into a South Auckland urgent care centre shortly before he died of multiple stab wounds have been sentenced to prison.
Thomas Kyle Ngapera, 38, and Rocky Sola Ngapera, 47, were each charged with conspiracy with intent to injure and attempting to pervert the course of justice in November 2021, along with Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung, a young mother who was found guilty of murder last month after jurors determined she had inflicted Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa’s fatal wounds with a large kitchen knife.
The brothers had been set to stand trial alongside Burns-Wong-Tung in the High Court at Auckland but both pleaded guilty in August, just days before the lengthy trial began.
“Your nephew would have felt safe with you, or at least not expected you to lead him to his death,” Justice Geoffrey Venning said today as he shot down the uncles’ hopes for home detention, instead ordering jail sentences of three years and two months.
“You were both equally involved and your nephew would have relied fully on both of you,” the judge continued. “I accept, of course, you had no idea Ms Burns-Wong-Tung would go on to kill him.”
Prosecutors said during Burns-Wong-Tung’s trial that the brothers had held their nephew captive after the 22-year-old made unsubstantiated claims of sexual impropriety against a relative of Burns-Wong-Tung. The brothers eventually drove Ngaronoa to a Weymouth cul-de-sac, where it was planned they would deliver him to Burns-Wong-Tung for a “hiding” – a form of “vigilante justice” for his indiscretion.
“In fact, she went further and murdered him,” Justice Venning said today. “She then left, saying, ‘Thanks, bruv.’”
Burns-Wong-Tung insisted during her trial that she didn’t have a knife on her and administered only a beating. Her lawyers suggested that perhaps one of the Ngapera brothers inflicted the fatal wounds because they were furious their nephew had fought back against Burns-Wong-Tung, but jurors rejected that alternative theory after prosecutors argued the timing made it next to impossible.
The attack, which was also caught on CCTV, occurred just one minute and 19 seconds before the Ngapera brothers called 111. The brothers arrived at Takanini Medical Centre roughly seven minutes later with their nephew critically injured.
“You abandoned him and left him at the scene [of the medical centre],” Venning told the brothers as he recounted the agreed facts for their cases.
A detective would call Thomas Ngapera later that evening to tell him his nephew had died, but Ngapera had left home before police could arrive to speak to him. Meanwhile, Rocky Ngapera shaved his head to disguise his appearance.
Both brothers smashed a window of the Ford Escape they had been driving. When police caught up to them, they blamed the stabbing on “unknown people” who they claimed had also damaged their vehicle with a shovel and an axe.
Crown prosecutor Todd Simmonds pointed out today that the defendants’ nephew had been “young, vulnerable and slightly built”. He disagreed with defence lawyers Harvena Cherrington and Hannah Kim that their clients showed genuine remorse.
The judge said their guilty pleas and letters of apology would have to be tempered by the brothers’ attempts to minimise their roles.
“I have to say I doubt your remorse is genuine,” Venning told Thomas Ngapera before making a similar statement to Rocky Ngapera. “For true remorse, there must be an acknowledgement of responsibility.”
Thomas Ngapera told report writers that he had a difficult upbringing in Hawke’s Bay, being raised in a Black Power-affiliated family in a Mongrel Mob-dominated neighbourhood. He had no gang affiliation himself and eventually moved to Auckland for a fresh start but that was not successful, the judge noted.
Rocky Ngapera, who sports a large Black Power tattoo on his right cheek, said he was patched at a young age but had since made efforts to distance himself from the gang. His childhood was marred by violence and drug use.
Given the level of violence in the case and their criminal histories, the men were given only small discounts off their final sentence for their backgrounds and remorse, but received larger discounts for their last-minute guilty pleas.
“You had numerous occasions and opportunities in the past where if you were genuine you could have turned your life around,” the judge told Thomas Ngapera.
Burns-Wong-Tung is set to be sentenced in December.
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.