A trio of thieves who lured a young drug dealer to a pre-dug grave for a mafia-style double-cross killing were handed substantial sentences today after a judge noted the unusual amount of callousness needed to carry out the plan.
“It was effectively an execution for monetary gain,” Justice Geoffrey Venning said, going on to describe the killing as “deliberate” and “in cold blood”.
Patched Head Hunters member Zak “Johnny Trigger” Kameta, 28, then-prospect Matthew Snaylam, 22, and 28-year-old construction company boss Hassan Al Fadhli, known to wear “Head Hunters supporter” regalia, were all found guilty of murder at the conclusion of their jury trial in November.
“My son was only 19 years old, just beginning his life - full of laughter, hope and dreams,” the mother of victim Jayden Mamfredos told the trio after they returned to the High Court at Auckland today for the sentencing hearing.
“Like any young person, he made mistakes, but nothing he did deserved to end this way.”
Mamfredos, also known by the surname Mamfredos-Nair, vanished in April 2023. His body wouldn’t be found in a deep grave outside Al Fadhli’s home until the following year, amid a high-profile missing persons investigation.
The defence suggested during the trial that Mamfredos – armed and unpredictable due to his own meth consumption – had been fatally shot by a mysterious, unidentified Black Power member during a large-scale drug deal that went sour.
Kameta, a digger operator, did conceal the body out of panic but he wasn’t the killer, defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC argued.
But jurors – and ultimately the judge – preferred the narrative suggested by Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock, in which the Black Power member was a spectre invented by the defendants to throw off authorities.
Instead, the Crown suggested, Mamfredos was lured to the rural North Auckland property with the promise of an easy-money, fake-drug-deal robbery of the fictional Black Power member. He would have arrived, McClintock said, to instead find a pre-dug grave and to realise – too late – that he had been double-crossed by his acquaintances.
Mamfredos, operating under the direction of an imprisoned Bloods member with the street name Raw, unknowingly had a target on his back after obtaining 1kg of methamphetamine worth an estimated $80,000 to $100,000, prosecutors said.
All three defendants were in on the plan, the Crown argued, explaining that Snaylam likely served as the lookout while Kameta filled in the grave and Al Fadhli actively kept his family away from their home so there wouldn’t be witnesses. They had hatched the plan about 10 days earlier and had even dug a practice grave, it was alleged.
Each faced an automatic life sentence today. Justice Venning’s job was to determine the minimum period of imprisonment before each man can begin to apply for parole.
Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock argued that the judge should impose a minimum period of imprisonment of at least 17 years for all three defendants because the murder involved “calculated or lengthy planning”.
“Jayden Mamfredos was set up and executed for commercial profit in a coordinated plan between these three defendants,” she said. “Significant thought and substantial planning went into this murder. There was nothing spontaneous about it. There was nothing amateur about it.
“The plan that they made worked for quite some time.”
Defence lawyer Annabel Ives, representing Snaylam, argued that a minimum 17-year term would be manifestly unjust based partly on her client’s age. As a school friend of the victim, he also was 19 at the time of the killing, she said, describing him as “easily led” and “relatively immature”.
He had spent too much time in a kickboxing gym, idolising gang members, but has now “stepped back” from his previous associations, Ives said.
Kameta, meanwhile, continues to dispute the jury’s finding, his lawyer said, arguing that the 17-year minimum should not be imposed for his client either.
At 28, he was still a relatively young man, Mansfield said, describing him as a hard-working former business owner who was capable of contributing to society upon his eventual release.
“I ask that the court not see this man as irredeemable,” he said.
Lawyer Justin Harder, representing Al Fadhli, noted that his client wasn’t present during the actual killing so his sentence should reflect his lesser role.
Justice Venning, however, was unconvinced by all three arguments. He ordered an 18-year minimum term of imprisonment for Kameta and 17 years for Snaylam and Al Fadhli.
“I accept that both the planning and the callousness of your acts were exceptional in this case,” he explained.
And the callousness continued even after the killing, he said, describing how Snaylam pretended to be a concerned friend in the weeks that followed - deceiving Maria Mamfredos, the victim’s mother, as she pleaded for help locating her son.
In a written victim impact statement read aloud in court today by the prosecutor, Maria Mamfredos said the “senseless, devastating act” was made much worse by the “crushing uncertainty” of the lengthy search for her son.
“[It was] nine months of unanswered questions - nine months of living between hope and dread,” she said, describing him as “the heart beat of our home”.
“Without him, there is silence.”
The defendants treated her son, she said, “as if he was disposable ... as if he didn’t belong to a family that loved him beyond words”.
She described her son as having left behind “a legacy of love, light and compassion”.
They were sentiments echoed by the victim’s grandmother and younger sister.
“He was our anchor,” Mamfredos’ sister said. “He was our protector, our confidant, our shield.”
She agreed the disappearance made the situation all the more painful, without an opportunity for closure.
“We had a nightmare for 270 days while the people who did this went on with their lives,” she said.
Justice Venning thanked the victim’s family for their statements and said he agreed with the victim’s mother that nothing he did deserved what happened to him.
In a statement released after today’s hearing, Maria Mamfredos praised the police work that led to her son’s discovery. Police had searched Al Fadhli’s property two times previously before discovering the unmarked grave disguised as part of the driveway.
“We are profoundly moved by the perseverance in seeking justice and the compassion you showed our family throughout this difficult time,” she said.
“You refused to give up despite the challenges – and gave us the gift of closure and the chance to lay our boy to rest with dignity.”
She also thanked the judge and jury for their “fairness and compassion” before asking the public for privacy as the family tries to “navigate this next chapter of our journey”.
Detective Inspector Callum McNeill also heaped praise on the officers who eventually cracked the difficult case.
“This team never gave up their work to locate Jayden and bring him home for his family,” he said.
He described Jayden Mamfredos’ family as having been “incredibly composed” through the four-week trial last year.
“Jayden’s death has placed a heavy toll on his family, and I know they deeply feel his loss,” he added. “Nothing we could have done would have brought Jayden back, but I hope there is some closure for them in being able to find Jayden and lay him to rest.”
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.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.