Malio Soakimi appears in Auckland District Court charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Texas Jack Doctor by giving a ride to co-defendant Sione Tupou. Photo / Dean Purcell
Malio Soakimi appears in Auckland District Court charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Texas Jack Doctor by giving a ride to co-defendant Sione Tupou. Photo / Dean Purcell
The Crown has withdrawn an accessory to murder charge against a man who was present when a simmering feud between two gang-affiliated families resulted in the ambush killing of a young man sitting in his car outside a Mt Wellington liquor store last July.
Malio Soakimi, 27, briefly appearedin the dock at the High Court at Auckland this morning before Justice Mathew Downs told him he could leave the courthouse a free man.
He had been on bail awaiting a trial in October regarding the homicide of Rebels gang member Texas Jack Doctor, who was shot by Soakimi’s former co-defendant, Head Hunters member Sione Tupou. Tupou pleaded guilty in April to murder and awaits sentencing in August.
“The Crown has reconsidered the charge against you,” Justice Downs explained to Soakimi today of the decision to withdraw the charge against him. “It concludes that it is no longer sufficiently supported by the evidence or there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction, or both.”
Authorities had initially alleged Soakimi agreed to be an accessory to murder after the fact by driving the shooter away from the scene. Had he been convicted, he could have faced up to seven years’ imprisonment.
In the lead-up to the shooting, there had been five “significant violence incidents” between the Tupou and Doctor families across a 12-month period.
Police cordon outside the Puffing Kiwi vape shop on Penrose Rd, Mt Wellington, at the scene of the fatal shooting of Texas Jack Doctor (inset). Photo / Isaac Davison
“Several of these involved firearms being discharged at addresses of the Tupou family,” according to a police summary of the case.
“These incidents appear to be the result of ongoing retaliations between the families, with the Tupou family and the Doctor family being recorded as offenders and victims at various stages.”
No one is exactly sure how the feud started. But from several different court cases, the Herald has pieced together a timeline of how the quarrel spiralled out of control.
The first recorded incident was on the evening of 19 July 2022, when Texas Junior Doctor – the father of Texas Jack Doctor – and another son, Wiremu, turned up unannounced at Sione Tupou’s house in the suburb of Glen Innes.
Tupou lived at the Taniwha St property with his mother.
Around 11.45pm, Tupou’s three sisters dropped their mother home after an evening out.
As she waved goodbye to her daughters through the window, Texas and Wiremu Doctor, as well as a cousin, arrived brandishing shotguns.
Sione Tupou appears in Auckland Distrcit Court in July 2024 charged with murdering Texas Doctor in Mt Wellington. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Texas Doctor fired at the house. Shotgun pellets shattered the window of the laundry where Tupou’s mother was standing, with the shards of glass falling into her hair.
He also fired, twice, at the three sisters as they reversed their car onto Taniwha St which punctured the two rear tyres.
“That’s what happens when you f*** with family,” one of the men shouted.
Retaliation was swift.
The Doctor family lived in the nearby suburb of Panmure, just 3km from the Tupou residence.
Three days later, someone shot Texas Junior Doctor outside his home. No one was ever arrested, but he planned to take matters into his own hands.
But in a text message to an associate, Texas Junior Doctor gave an explanation as to why he opened fire on the Tupou home in the first place.
“These f***ing idiots are after my oldest son [Texas Jack]. They beat him up in January, three car loads [of men] and put him in hospital,” Texas Junior Doctor wrote.
“I don’t know what they have against my boys but I’m glad it was me that got shot [and] not them.”
Doctor asked his associate for more ammunition for his firearms.
A few weeks later, on August 12, 2022, Texas Junior Doctor and one other person returned to Tupou’s house in Glen Innes.
“Texas Doctor and the other person got out the vehicle and walked up the driveway of the address to the front door,” court documents state. “They were both holding a shotgun or other firearm.
“They fired 12 shots into the front door of the address, which caused extensive damage to a number of rooms inside the house.”
But no one was home – Sione Tupou and his family had already moved out.
The next day, police searched Texas Doctor’s vehicle and found a Norinco semi-automatic rifle and ammunition.
He and his younger son Wiremu – both members of the Rebels motorcycle gang – were sentenced to prison together in April last year after admitting to the shootings.
Rebels gang members Texas Doctor (right) and son Wiremu Doctor appear in Auckland District Court for sentencing. Photo / Craig Kapitan
But the family feud did not end with the Doctors going to prison. Three months later, Texas Jack Doctor was shot dead following a chance encounter.
Tupou and Soakimi walked out of the Super Liquor store on Penrose Rd around 10.35pm on Saturday, July 13, each carrying a 24-bottle box of Speights beers.
After they put the drinks in the boot of Soakimi’s Volkswagen Golf, Texas Doctor drove his silver Mazda hatchback into the carpark. He stepped out of his car and started to walk towards the liquor store, just as the Volkswagen began to reverse out of the parking space.
Doctor recognised someone in the Volkswagen and acknowledged them by nodding his head. But he didn’t see the looming danger until it was too late.
Sitting in the back seat of the Volkswagen, Tupou opened the passenger door while the car was still moving. Doctor immediately turned around and returned to the driver’s seat of his Mazda, and shut the door. Tupou was close behind with a gun in his hand.
Texas Jack Doctor. Photo / Supplied
“Tupou approached within three metres of Mr Doctor’s car and fired twice at Mr Doctor as he sat in his vehicle,” according to a summary of the police investigation.
“After the shooting, Mr Tupou immediately got back into the passenger seat of the black Volkswagen, and Mr Soakimi drove Mr Tupou away from the scene at speed.”
Texas Doctor suffered two gunshot wounds to his torso.
During Tupou’s guilty plea in April, Justice Downs took the drastic step of closing the courtroom to the public due to visible tensions between the two warring families.
Courthouse security officers stood outside the courtroom today as Soakimi’s charge was withdrawn. Nobody sat in the gallery.
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.
Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
