Killer Beez president Joshua James Masters is facing another potential prison sentence after admitting he put two children in danger during a wild ride down State Highway 1 on his unroadworthy quad bike.
Masters, 48, who was paralysed during an attempt on his life six years ago, has been known since the near-fatal shooting to use a quad bike during gang rides.
But such vehicles should never be used on motorways regardless of whether children are aboard, authorities have noted in the agreed summary of facts for his reckless driving and ill treatment of children charges.
Masters said he didn’t know he was breaking the law when he was stopped by police in Auckland in December 2023 – the children, aged 10 and 12, placed in front and behind him on the quad bike’s single seat.
Both children were wearing helmets but no other protective clothing, while Masters wore no helmet and had only a motorcycle learner’s licence. Rather than issuing a citation, police decided the situation was serious enough to arrest Masters.
Documents state the 43km ride started in Warkworth before heading south, with several near crashes as the vehicle swerved – likely involuntarily – into other lanes.
“ATVs are unsafe for use at high speeds on paved surfaces as they behave very differently on sealed roads, due to their handlebar configuration and off-road steering configuration,” court documents state, explaining that the wide, low-pressure tyres also have “different steering characteristics”.
Accordingly, the New Zealand Transport Agency bars ATVs from exceeding 30km/h on sealed surfaces. Masters accelerated to about 100km/h upon entering the motorway, overtaking heavy trucks and other vehicles in the slow lane.
“After increasing his speed, Mr Masters became unable to maintain a straight path of travel within his lane,” authorities said.
Some of the journey has been pieced together by police via CCTV.
“Mr Masters moved into lane one of two but as he was passing Wylie Rd he suddenly veered to the right side of his lane, causing a motorist to veer themselves onto the solid white lane marker near the centre barrier,” authorities detailed of another part of the journey.
He again lost control near Windy Ridge, straddling the line between two lanes, but he continued, “weaving within his lane consistently from left to right and back again”. He came within a metre of side-swiping another vehicle near the Ōkahu Viaduct.
Police signalled him to stop shortly after the Oteha Valley Rd offramp, where he had “changed lanes suddenly, causing other motorists around him to brake suddenly”.
Even putting aside Masters’ speed and failure to control the quadbike, a post-arrest inspection showed it wouldn’t have passed a warrant of fitness test, police said. The indicators did not work, it had no handholds or footrests for pillion passengers and “there was an inability to use the footbrake, if necessary”.
Quadbikes generally have handbrakes which control the front wheels and a footbrake responsible for stopping the back wheels. Using one set of brakes without the other in a sudden stop can cause a motorbike to skid out of control.
Reckless driving carries a maximum sentence of three months’ imprisonment, with driver disqualification for at least six months. The ill treatment of children charge, however, has the potential to result in a much lengthier sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Masters, who currently lives in Northland, has had his sentencing hearing reset multiple times – most recently last week. He appeared in North Shore District Court via audio-video feed from another courthouse.
He was joined on screen by a co-defendant, beaming in from yet another courthouse, who was described by police as having tailgated Masters’ quadbike in a Mercedes throughout that day’s journey despite being forbidden from driving.
“She followed at a distance of approximately four to eight metres, removing the ability to stop short if one of [the children] fell from Mr Masters’ ATV,” the agreed facts state.
Masters’ lawyer, Jacqueline Rempe, asked for last week’s hearing to be adjourned while her client continues to look for housing that would make home detention a possible outcome of the sentencing. Because of his disability, finding an accessible home has been particularly difficult, she said.
Masters lives in Whangārei, where he said ACC provides him 24-hour care, but he indicated to the court he would like to return to Auckland.
Crown prosecutor Natassia Pearce-Bernie opposed a further delay, suggesting that there had been plenty of time already for Masters to find suitable housing. But Judge Ajit Swaran Singh allowed the adjournment, with a warning that it would be the last one.
He ordered both defendants to return to court, via audio-video feed, in November. Both remain on bail in the meantime.
Masters has led the Killer Beez since the early 2000s and has seen the group’s rise from a street gang whose members used to feed into the Tribesmen into a force of its own with a strong underworld presence.
The gang’s ranks grew considerably after Masters recruited efforts from behind bars upon being handed a lengthy prison sentence in 2012 for methamphetamine trafficking.
He was shot in the spine by a former close friend, Okusitino Tae, one year after Masters’ 2018 release on parole. Tae, a former Killer Beez member who went on to become a sergeant-at-arms for the Tribesmen, tried to fire more shots at Masters after the gang leader collapsed from the first bullet and his Harley-Davidson fell on him, but the gun jammed, a judge noted at Tae’s 2020 sentencing.
Tae was released on parole earlier this year.
The animosity between the Killer Beez and the Tribesmen boiled over into an all-out gang war in 2022 but ended after about a month of drive-by shootings and arsons when both sides sat down for peace talks.
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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