Murder trial begins for Ethan Dodds and Julius Te Hivaka, accused of killing Ben Mcintosh at West Auckland reserve

A small-time drug dealer who was shot in the head at close range after being lured to a West Auckland reserve under the guise of a sale had spent the prior evening with his on-again-off-again partner - a woman who is now on trial for accessory after the fact to murder alongside two men accused of carrying out the killing.

That is the scenario prosecutors suggested to jurors yesterday as testimony began in the High Court at Auckland for the trial of Ethan Dane Dodds, 24, Julius Abner Te Hivaka, 27, and Tamirah Baker, 26.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to the murder of Benjamin Mcintosh, who was found slumped in his car at Glen Eden’s Harold Moody Park on the morning of June 3, 2022.

Co-defendant Baker has pleaded not guilty to the accessory charge, which was filed after authorities said she led police on a lengthy, high-speed chase three days after the shooting that started in Dargaville and ended only after road spikes were deployed. Sitting in the passenger seat of the stolen car was Dodds. In the back of the vehicle, prosecutors allege, was the gun that caused her former boyfriend’s death.

Julius Te Hivaka, Ethan Dodds and Tamirah Baker are co-defendants in the High Court at Auckland trial relating to the death of Ben McIntosh (background) in Glen Eden in June 2022. Photo / Dean Purcell

Mcintosh, 36, died at Auckland Hospital, where he was rushed after a groundskeeper arrived at the reserve and noticed his white sedan running with the lights still on.

“Bro, are you okay?” the groundskeeper recalled asking in sworn affidavit read aloud to jurors, explaining that he soon realised the stranger was severely unwell and called 111.

“Hang in there,” he recalled saying several times as he paced the area and waited for paramedics. “The ambos are coming.”

Mcintosh suffered two gunshot wounds believed to have been from a single bullet from a sawn-off semi-automatic rifle, prosecutor Conrad Purdon told jurors during yesterday’s opening address. The bullet entered his shoulder and exited before entering his neck and lodging in his brain. Experts believe it would have been fired from less than one foot away.

Benjamin "Dekoy" Mcintosh was killed at a Glen Eden reserve in June 2022.

CCTV footage indicates Dodds and Te Hivaka had arrived at the park first, around 7.27am, followed by Mcintosh’s vehicle 20 minutes later, Purdon said. The duo left the park two minutes after Mcintosh’s arrival, he told jurors.

The intent all along was to lure him to the park and then to rob him, Purdon suggested, adding that he didn’t know which one of the two pulled the trigger but it ultimately won’t matter. Jurors can find them both guilty if they are convinced by the end of the four-week trial that both of them were in on the plan.

The days leading up to the shooting had been somewhat tumultuous for Mcintosh and Baker, who broke up but then appeared to almost immediately get back together, testified a woman whose house they would sometimes stay at.

On the night before his shooting, Mcintosh told the friend that he had gotten into an argument with Baker because she and another man were “trying to get something out of him”, the woman recalled him telling her.

“He said they were trying to set him up and angle him,” she recalled. “He had sent a message to her telling her it was over - just saying ‘f*** you’, pretty much, he’s done.”

Ben McIntosh was found in a critical condition at Harold Moody Park in Glen Eden on June 3, 2022. Photo / Alex Burton

But early the next morning, just hours before the shooting, she saw him again and asked what happened with Baker.

“She’s in the car,” she recalled him responding, adding that he was in a good mood because he had just won a jackpot at the pokies.

“I just laughed at him,” she said of Baker being back in the picture, explaining that fights between the two weren’t uncommon.

Prosecutors weren’t as forgiving in their description of the relationship, describing it as “dysfunctional” and describing Baker as having “treated him with contempt”.

Tamirah Baker appears in the High Court at Auckland following the June 2022 death of former boyfriend Ben Mcintosh. She is accused of being an accessory to murder after the fact. Photo / Dean Purcell

Prosecutors did not reveal much about Mcintosh during their opening address other than his nickname, Dekoy, and that he was a drug user as well as “low-level” dealer. They urged jurors to put aside any feelings they might have about the illegal drug trade in determining the facts of the case.

“He’s just a nice guy,” said the woman whose house he sometimes stayed at, adding under cross-examination that it was a bit “harsh” to describe him as a low-level dealer even though he did sell drugs occasionally. “He just did what he needed to do to get by.”

A man who had sold Mcintosh methamphetamine that same morning said there had been nothing out of the ordinary about his mood as he arrived at a Massey church parking lot with Baker in his car.

“He was his usual happy self - making jokes,” the man recalled.

Baker had also spent time the evening before the shooting with both of her co-defendants, prosecutors allege. Telecom data would later show the defendants talking after the shooting about “sh** having gone down” that morning, jurors were told.

Ethan Dodds appears in the High Court at Auckland charged with the murder of Ben Mcintosh in June 2022. Photo / Dean Purcell

Baker pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial to dangerous driving but has denied being an accessory after the fact or to being in possession of the firearm found in the stolen car. Dodds, meanwhile, pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to being in possession of the gun that was found in the stolen vehicle but denied the murder charge.

Experts called by the prosecution are expected to testify that the bullet extracted from Mcintosh’s body could have been fired by the gun found in the vehicle. The trigger of that rifle would have required over 2kg of pressure to fire, it is alleged.

Another expert is expected to testify that a cigarette butt found less than two metres from Mcintosh’s car at the police crime scene had DNA on it matching Dodds’.

Julius Te Hivaka appears in the High Court at Auckland charged with the murder of Ben Mcintosh in June 2022. Photo / Dean Purcell

Fingerprint expert Mark Richardson testified yesterday that a print from Te Hivaka was found on a door handle of Mcintosh’s car and Baker’s print was found on an inside window. But it’s impossible to say when the surfaces were touched, he agreed under cross-examination.

During a police search of Dodds’ home, police found Mcintosh’s cellphone hidden in a toilet cistern.

Lawyers for all three defendants declined to give brief opening statements but will have another opportunity to do so after prosecutors call their last witness.

Testimony is expected to continue this morning when the trial resumes before Justice Graham Lang and the jury.

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.