Kelly-Anne Burns was the former partner of senior Mongrel Mob member Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog, who died in 2017.
Kelly-Anne Burns was the former partner of senior Mongrel Mob member Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog, who died in 2017.
Kelly-Anne Burns admitted guilt to charges of failure to answer bail and conspiracy to injure.
Burns was on the run for a year and a half before being found by police.
Her daughter, Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa.
Nine months before Mongrel Mob-affiliated mum Kelly-Anne Burns was scheduled to accompany her murder-accused daughter in the dock — accused of having arranged the delivery of a captive young man to her daughter before a frenzied knife attack — she was granted compassionate bail to attenda funeral.
She never returned.
She had been accused of having arranged the delivery of a captive young man to her daughter Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung before the knife attack.
Now, more than a year after Burns-Wong-Tung was found guilty and sentenced in the High Court at Auckland, the Herald can reveal her mother, 51, was causing headaches behind the scenes with her disappearing act.
Burns, who was on the run from Dec 2022 to May 2024, was seldom referred to in media coverage of the Nov 2023 trial to protect her fair trial rights.
Those concerns were allayed this week when she admitted guilt to charges of failure to answer bail and conspiracy to injure with intent.
Burns’ 18 months of freedom came to an end only when police found her by accident while executing an unrelated search warrant, Judge David Johnstone was told during the hearing.
He ordered Burns held in custody until her sentencing, set for May.
The mother-daughter duo are members of one of Auckland’s most prominent Mongrel Mob-affiliated families.
Kelly-Anne Burns, the mother of murder convict Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung, was the longtime partner of deceased Mongrel Mob leader Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog.
Burns was the long-time partner of Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog, who died in 2017. He and other family members were senior members of South Auckland’s Mongrel Mob Notorious chapter and Wong-Tung at one point served as president.
Unofficially, and outside earshot of jurors, the family was referred to as Mongrel Mob royalty.
Supporters with prominent gang tattoos and outfits consistently accented with red attended every day of Burns-Wong-Tungs’ September 2023 trial. But despite a modestly increased security presence this week, the courtroom was largely empty as guards wheeled Burns-Wong-Tung’s mother into the dock in a wheelchair.
As the judge asked Burns how she wished to plead, she answered “guilty” in a barely audible whisper.
‘Gangstress behaviour’
Prosecutors alleged during Burns-Wong-Tung’s trial that the young mother of three had been “furious” over suggestions by victim Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa that a relative of hers had engaged in sexually inappropriate behaviour with a toddler.
Although the allegation was later described as laughably false by both Burns-Wong-Tung and the toddler’s mother, it set off a chain of events in which Ngaronoa was held captive and brought to Burns-Wong-Tung for what was supposed to be a vigilante justice-style “hiding”.
Gisborne resident Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa, 22, died in November 2021 after he was dropped off at a South Auckland medical facility with critical injuries. Photo / Supplied
It was never alleged that Burns or anyone else other than her daughter knew a knife would be used in the attack.
Burns-Wong-Tung was sentenced in December 2023 to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 15 years.
During that hearing, Justice Matthew Muir said that under normal circumstances the “frenzied, brutal and prolonged” murder would call for a minimum term of imprisonment of at least 17 years because of the inappropriate vigilantism involved, her callous behaviour after the attack and Ngaronoa’s vulnerability as a captive.
But in the end, the judge decided such a sentence would be “manifestly unjust” when considering her transient childhood, which involved sleeping at gang pads and, after both parents were incarcerated, on the streets.
Kelly-Anne Burns was the former partner of senior Mongrel Mob member Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog, who died in 2017.
The judge noted that she appeared to have been protected to an extent by her father’s high rank within the gang and she did “derive love and support within the community”, but it also meant she was exposed to crime and violence throughout her childhood.
“You behaved like the gangstress you were largely conditioned to become,” he said of the attack.
Burns-Wong-Tung insisted, even after the jury found her guilty, that she never stabbed Ngaronoa during the November 2021 attack. The incident was caught on grainy, partially obstructed CCTV footage that was played for jurors repeatedly.
She was recorded rummaging through the boot of her car — to retrieve a knife, prosecutors alleged, while she insisted it was to look for shoes — before the SUV, with Ngaronoa in the back seat arrived and parked in the middle of the South Auckland cul-de-sac where she was waiting.
Tago Kepa Hemopo (left) and Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Two bystanders described hearing shrieks and screams coming from the SUV — one of them recalling that Burns-Wong-Tung’s fists were moving like “pistons” during the attack.
Burns is now the fifth and final person to be convicted in relation to Ngaronoa’s death.
Just days before Burns-Wong-Tung’s trial began, brothers Thomas and Rocky Ngapera both pleaded guilty on the eve of the trial to conspiracy with intent to injure — the same charge that Burns admitted — and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Rocky Ngapera was Burns’ partner. He was also the victim’s uncle.
Burns-Wong-Tung’s own partner, Tago Kepa Hemopo, was the only co-defendant left to sit beside her at trial. Jurors found him guilty of conspiracy to injure but he was acquitted of accessory after the fact to murder.
Jurors convicted Tago Hemopo pf conspiracy to injure 22-year-old Rangiwhero Ngaronoa but aquitted him of being an accessory to murder after the fact. Photo / Michael Craig
Hemopo, a patched Mongrel Mob member, drove Burns-Wong-Tung to the scene of the killing in their family vehicle but did not know a knife would be used in the attack, his lawyer said before he was sentenced to two years in prison.
The Ngapera brothers were each sentenced to three years and two months in prison. Conspiracy to injure with intent carries a maximum possible sentence of five years.
Burns-Wong-Tung showed up first at the cul-de-sac, at 12.33pm that Saturday, according to the CCTV record. She then messaged her mother, who pulled up in a Toyota Voxy van at 12.38pm and stopped the vehicle beside her daughter’s.
Kelly-Anne Burns, the mother of murder convict Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung, was the longtime partner of deceased Mongrel Mob leader Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog.
The Ngapera brothers showed up a minute later with their nephew in the back seat.
“Burns-Wong-Tung ... approached the Ford Escape, appearing to pass a concealed object from her right hand to her left hand,” police wrote in the summary of facts that was agreed to by Burns and the Ngapera brothers. “She spoke to Ngarona through the open car window and demanded he open the door.
“At 12.40pm the door opened. Burns-Wong-Tung leaned into the rear right door and assaulted Ngaronoa. Burns-Wong-Tung used a kitchen knife to stab Ngaronoa repeatedly.”
Burns-Wong-Tung’s mother approached the SUV and stood in the doorway as the attack continued for about one minute, the agreed facts also state.
Kelly-Anne Burns, the mother of murder convict Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung, was the longtime partner of deceased Mongrel Mob leader Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog.
Burns-Wong-Tung’s version of events held the victim had no cuts after she punched him. The defence insinuated her uncles, who quickly left the scene with the victim after the attack, must have pulled over and stabbed him themselves in the roughly eight minutes between the attack and when they were recorded dragging him into a Takanini medical centre — motionless and covered in blood.
The Crown noted the uncles called 111 one minute and 19 seconds after the attack and must have sped to the medical centre because they got there faster than a Google Maps time estimate. The defence’s theory, it was argued, was impossible when analysing the timing confirmed by CCTV.
History of running
Although they didn’t reveal it was connected to a murder case, police sought help from the public finding Burns in May 2023 — four months before the murder trial was scheduled to begin.
She wasn’t the only defendant missing at that point.
Both she and Hemopo were considered dangerous and should not be approached, police warned in a release accompanied by Hemopo’s mugshot.
Any sightings of Tago Hemopo should be reported to 111 immediately, police warned in 2023. Photo / Supplied
It wasn’t the first time police had encountered difficulties tracking down Burns.
“Kelly-Anne Burns, 37, is on the run from police after being charged with dealing and possession of methamphetamine, as well as breach of bail and breach of community work,” the Herald reported at the time.
Police released this photo of Kelly-Anne Burns, then 37, in 2010 when she was wanted for dealing and supply of methamphetamine. Photo / Supplied
“She is a Mongrel Mob associate and is the partner of Notorious gang president William Wong Tong. She may be anywhere in the upper North Island, and may be using the name Sophie Carmichael.”
The summary of facts she agreed to regarding Ngaronoa’s death noted that all five defendants had previously appeared before the courts on other matters.
Burns’ history is likely to be discussed in more detail at her May sentencing.
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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