Thacker was found guilty on charges related to the shooting at a Mongrel Mob house in Tauranga, along with his three co-accused, but it was the retaliatory shoot-out that the jury struggled with a unanimous verdict, instead returning with a majority - or 11-1 - verdict on a charge of discharging a firearm that day.
Thacker was on trial with his vice president Hone Ronaki, South Island president Jason Ross, 46, sergeant at arms Leon “the wolf” Huritu, 39, Kelly Petrowski, 28, Matthew Ramsden, 45, Kane Ronaki, 24, Te Reneti Tarau, 26, and a 28-year-old Auckland man with interim name suppression.
Their gang connection was on show as the group was brought up from the cells to face the verdicts, shaking hands, hugging and wishing each other well.
“Good luck, my brother,” they said to each other.
After Thacker, Hone Ronaki was found guilty of 26 of his 40 charges, which mostly centred around firearm possession, and drug possession and supply.
Huritu was guilty on all but one - unlawful possession of a firearm - of his 12 charges, and the Auckland man with suppression was guilty of 13 of 15 charges, which included possession and supplying methamphetamine and discharging a firearm during the Haukore St shooting.
Ross was guilty on all four of his charges, mainly possessing methamphetamine for supply, while Ramsden, dubbed the methamphetamine “washer” and “processor” was found guilty on all 12 of his charges and Kane Ronaki was guilty on all of his three charges.
Petrowski was found guilty of four of his five charges, including participating in an organised criminal group.
Tarau was cleared of the only two charges he faced.
Those found guilty were remanded in custody for sentencing in April, with some defence counsel indicating they would apply for bail.
The jury initially returned with their verdicts at 9.20am after five days of deliberation involving thousands of pages of evidence.
However, when asked by Justice Harland whether they were all unanimous in their verdicts, the jury replied “No”.
They were then given further information and asked to confirm their non-majority verdict, which was confirmed at midday.
Before dismissing the jury, Justice Harland thanked them “profoundly” for the hard work they had put in.
“This has been a long trial, much longer than anyone expected.
“So, on behalf of the community, I thank you very much for your service,” she said.
Justice Harland also said given what they had been through and their “enormous effort, time and energy” put into the verdicts, they would now be offered the opportunity to be excused from any further jury duty for the next seven years.
Prior to sending the jury out last week, Justice Harland spent two days summing up the trial, which has gone on so long, the country has witnessed multiple sporting world cups and even a change of monarch.
It’s endured a multitude of delays, from sickness to legal arguments, as well as tied up countless resources from Corrections and police.
Some accused have had two Corrections seated either side of them throughout proceedings, while on average six police officers have been stationed outside the courthouse each day.
Anyone entering the trial had to undergo a Covid-19 rapid antigen test each day, too.
The jury was given more than 2000 pages of evidence in multiple folders covering multiple topics, including the vital question trail, witness evidence, expert evidence, picture books and intercepted communications.
One of the key aspects Justice Harland reminded the jury of before their deliberation was that they were the deciders of the facts and how much weight – if any – to give the evidence they heard.
At the centre of those facts was the evidence of the Crown’s key witness, who it described as so reliable he could have been an expert, while defence counsel labelled him a “liar”.
Defence counsel, all from either Auckland or Bay of Plenty, said he had a motive to lie and did lie.
