An Auckland teenager who shot four other young men last year at the apex of a prolonged feud that started over a girl has admitted guilt just weeks ahead of his scheduled murder trial.
Newly released court documents state the family of defendant Kayden Stanaway had been terrorised in the months leading up to the September 2024 shootings. But Stanaway also lashed out, threatening at one point to kidnap the father of 18-year-old Maxwel-Dee Repia, who would die just hours later.
Stanaway, now 20, returned to the High Court at Auckland this morning for the arraignment on one count of murder and three counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily injury.
The quadruple shooting has now been deemed to have been in self-defence, although so excessive as to be illegal, according to the agreed summary of facts for his case.
Stanaway fatally shot Repia and seriously injured Repia’s mates outside the defendant’s family home in Grey Lynn on the evening of September 5 last year, hours after Repia and others threw rocks at the house, smashing a window.
“The feud between the complainant group and Mr Stanaway began in early 2024 when Mr Stanaway began a relationship with the ex-girlfriend of a friend of the complainant group,” court documents state.
It ended with what appeared to be four carefully aimed shots.
“Mr Stanaway adopted a standing firing stance by resting his elbows on the roof of the Mazda vehicle and taking aim with the firearm at Mr Repia’s group across the road,” according to the agreed facts.
Stanaway and Repia appeared to have made permanent enemies of each other sometime in early 2024, when Repia tried to punch the defendant through a car window, the agreed facts state. The two teens squared off on that occasion but didn’t end up fighting.
The next documented confrontation happened in late February that year, when a 13-year-old friend of the defendant was allegedly beaten up and robbed by Repia and his associates. Stanaway and his associates retaliated by doing the same to one of Repia’s friends.
Stanaway claimed to authorities that on St Patrick’s Day that year, Repia and some others showed up at his home, initially threatening to shoot his 13-year-old sister. When Stanaway and his father confronted the group, armed with a hammer and a crowbar, Stanaway claimed that Repia again escalated the situation.
“Mr Stanaway’s account is that Mr Repia pulled out the apparent firearm and pointed it at Mr Rama-Manga’s head, pulling the trigger,” court documents state. “The gun made a clicking sound but no bullets were released.”
Police, however, were never called.
Two weeks later, the defendant claimed, Repia and his associates showed up at the home around 1am “armed with a crowbar and ready for a fight”. They allegedly smashed windows to the house and to Stanaway’s car, tagging it with spray paint.
“Mr Repia and others attempted to enter the house through the front door; however, Mr Stanaway, his father and his cousin were able to hold the door closed and prevent their entry,” court documents state.
Police were later called to report the damage. A short time later, a fragile truce between the two groups was reached.
But animosity reignited four-and-a-half months later, in mid-August, when Repia and his associates allegedly forced their way into Stanaway’s family home and confronted his father and 17-year-old sister. Stanaway was not home, but the group demanded the keys to his new motorbike, the agreed facts state.
The intruders were holding bottles as weapons, Stanaway’s father would later recount. As they left the house, Stanaway’s sister called the police. The defendant’s father called him.
“Mr Stanaway raced home and saw Mr Repia and his associates out on the street near his house,” court documents state. “He witnessed one of the associates assault his friend with a bottle to the head while his friend was on the ground.
“While they were assaulting his friend on the ground, Mr Stanaway drove his car at members of Mr Repia’s group, hitting at least one of them with his car. He then circled back around to where his friend was on the ground, in an attempt to block him from a further attack.
“This continued until the police arrived.”
By August 28, one week before the shooting, Stanaway was sending threats to Repia’s group via social media messages.
“Tell your big homie Max to pull up got a clip with his name on it,” he wrote in one message, referring to ammunition.
A friend of Repia’s, who would later be shot in the face, ended the exchange by sending a photo of himself holding a gun.
Earlier on the day of the shooting, Repia and his mates had filmed themselves chasing Stanaway in his car after randomly coming across him on the road.
Repia and some of the others who would later be shot then went to Stanaway’s home and threw the rocks, documents state. Stanaway’s father called police around 4.22pm, followed by a call to his son.
As the evening progressed, Stanaway stood outside his home with a rottweiler dog and a group of friends who had arrived for his brother’s 14th birthday party.
Stanaway at one point called Repia. In a follow-up message, he wrote: “Or I’ll kidnap your dad.”
At 6.01pm, Repia said he was headed to the house.
“Wait there,” he wrote. “If ur not there then im gna Kidnap ur dad.”
Repia said he wanted “just 1on1s” so it wouldn’t cause as much of a scene.
“No fanas,” the murder victim said, using Samoan slang for guns.
Repia and four others parked near the Grey Lynn house about 6.45pm.
“As Mr Repia’s group approached the defendants’ group, a heated verbal exchange ensued that was escalating,” the summary of facts states. “Mr Stanaway alleges that two of Mr Repia’s associates threatened to shoot the rottweiler belonging to Mr Stanaway’s associate.”
Stanaway remained next to the open door of a white Mazda parked outside his home.
“Mr Stanaway, believing that at least one of the complainants had a firearm in their hands, reached into the Mazda vehicle and armed himself with a long-barreled .22 calibre rifle,” court documents state.
He aimed and fired the four shots in quick succession – each shot hitting a person.
Repia and his friends scattered as the shots were fired, but he died at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
One of the survivors was put in a medically induced coma and underwent multiple surgeries as a result of a bullet that punctured his nose and travelled into his neck, near his spine. Another was shot in the chin, and a third survivor was treated for a chest wound.
They were between the ages of 19 and 20.
Stanaway fled the scene in a Mercedes-Benz belonging to friend Destry Joe Watts, who was sentenced to two years’ intensive supervision in March after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact to the quadruple shooting.
Watts, 19, also buried the murder weapon in a planter box at his partner’s house. Police wouldn’t find it until two months later.
Police caught up with both teens, albeit at separate locations, two days after the shootings.
During today’s brief hearing, Justice Geoffrey Venning ordered the defendant to remain in custody to await a sentencing hearing in February.
Stanaway, whose frame has enlarged significantly during his year behind bars awaiting trial, wore an untucked dress shirt and stood next to a communications assistant in the dock as the charges were put to him.
“Guilty,” he repeated four times before the brief hearing ended.
Most murder convictions result in an automatic life sentence, with a minimum period of imprisonment of 10 or more years.
However, judges occasionally impose shorter terms in cases where the standard outcome is thought to be manifestly excessive due to specific circumstances, such as youth or excessive self-defence.
Neither side indicated today what type of sentence will be sought.
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.