A judge was concerned teenager Te Waiariki Phillips, who was sentenced in Whangarei District Court yesterday, expressed no remorse or regret about wanting a rival harmed or killed. Photo / NZME
A judge was concerned teenager Te Waiariki Phillips, who was sentenced in Whangarei District Court yesterday, expressed no remorse or regret about wanting a rival harmed or killed. Photo / NZME
A teenager who travelled from the South Island for an organised shoot-up of a Head Hunter gang member's Whangārei home, claims it was not gang-related but retribution for an attack on his father.
The Crown insists otherwise.
Te Waiariki Phillips, 18, was jailed for two years and four months, whenhe appeared for sentencing before Judge Taryn Bayley in Whangārei District Court yesterday.
On April 30, last year, Phillips, who lives in Christchurch, was prospecting for the Mongols gang when he and a younger teen flew to Auckland and then caught a bus to Whangārei.
While in Auckland, Phillips collected a semi-automatic carbine chambered SKS rifle, and carried it in a backpack on the bus.
Arriving in Whangārei the two teens were met by their uncle Rodney Steven Phillips, 51, who took them to stay at Te Waiariki's father Quentin Phillips's house.
During the afternoon of May 7, Phillips stole a van, which he and others were in when it was driven about 6.20pm that evening in convoy with a black Honda Odyssey, to Brunner Tce, a cul de sac in Kamo where the Head Hunter's man lived with his partner and children.
The van parked near the address and about 10 minutes later someone in it fired five shots indiscriminately at the house – four went through multiple walls, including one in a child's bedroom; a fifth went into a neighbour's roof.
People were home at the time but no one was injured, Judge Bayley noting that it was only due to good luck.
The van left and was torched in a nearby street about 10 minutes later. All its occupants fled in the Honda to Auckland.
The house in Brunner Terrace, Whangarei, which was targeted by a shooter in a van parked nearby on May 7, last year. Photo / Google
Phillips was taken to meet his uncle Rodney, who drove him to Auckland Airport.
Police later found the burned out van with the gun in it.
Phillips pleaded guilty in August this year to doing a dangerous act (involving a firearm) with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, unlawfully taking a vehicle, and arson.
A charge of participating in an organised criminal group was withdrawn.
Prosecutor Richard Annandale told Judge Bayley the Crown believed the incident was gang-related and that Phillips got his Mongols patch soon after arriving back to Christchurch.
Annandale said there was evidence of a text message exchange in which Phillips and a gang associate spoke about Phillips' collecting a "toy" (the firearm) and that he would be "patched" on his return.
That gang aspect was a significant aggravating feature, Annandale said. He wanted Phillips jailed and submitted a sentence starting point six and a half to seven years' imprisonment.
Counsel Jarred Scott submitted a starting point of between three and a half and five years.
He said Phillips did not get "patched" immediately after returning to Christchurch and said he was not put up to this incident by the gang but was acting in support of his father (a member of another gang).
Given his guilty plea, youth, absence of previous convictions, and upbringing - which had normalised and role modelled gang life and violence for him - he could appropriately be given the maximum term of home detention (12 months).
It would enable Phillips to benefit from more targeted counselling and to keep his employment, Scott said.
Judge Bayley said the offending was serious, planned, and determined, and involved a lethal weapon, which Phillips had transported.
While it was not clear who fired the shots, all those in the van were equally culpable.
Denunciation and deterrence needed to take precedence. She shared Annandale's concern about the rise in this type of offending in Northland during the past 12 months.
She also had to take account of the loss of the vehicle to its owner and the inevitable impact on the occupants of the house, who must have been terrified.
She accepted the link between Phillips' upbringing and his offending but also noted that despite that negative past, he continued to involve himself with gangs.
This incident was at least partly gang-related and be it that or whanau-related, it was unlawful vigilantism by any name, the judge said.
Phillips' lack of remorse and his comment he did not regret his intention to harm or kill the victim, concerned her.
In calculating Phillips' sentence, Judge Bayley set a starting point of 6.5 years imprisonment and reached a final point of two years and four months after taking into account factors including his guilty plea, age and lack of convictions.
Judge Bayley also applied a six-month discount for 15 months Phillips spent on electronically-monitored bail.
He was ordered to make reparation of $4500 for a share in damage to the vehicle.
Earlier this year Rodney Phillips, was jailed for 12 months the Crown accepting his role was limited to transporting Te Waiariki with no direct involvement in the shooting.
Charges against the teen travelling companion were withdrawn.
Quentin Phillips has pleaded not guilty to charges he faces.
