‘H-town 07′ youth gangsters jailed for ram-raid, armed robbery spree in Hamilton

Hawkes Bay Prison inmates hurl objects at those below them, including riot squad members and firefighters last year. Photo / Warren Buckland

A member of a gang called “H-town 07″ who helped steal more than $150,000 worth of goods in a spate of burglaries before taking part in a youth justice facility riot has been jailed, but is already eligible for parole.

Zac Edmonds was this week sentenced to five years in jail for his part in the offending, including a 24-hour long riot at Hawke’s Bay Prison’s high-security youth remand facility last year that caused around $1 million in damage.

Despite the sentence handed down in Hamilton District Court yesterday, Edmonds is already eligible for parole because of the two years he has spent serving time while on remand.

Edmonds, 19, and his 20-year-old co-offender Quest Outlawz Williams, who sports a skeletal tattoo of hand and middle finger on the side of his face, were both involved in a string of armed robberies and a late-evening heist at Heathcote Appliances at The Base mall in Hamilton in 2021.

The haul netted them more than $150,000 worth of appliances.

The pair, along with up to four co-offenders, were part of a youth gang they called ”H-town 07″.

In July 2021, they not only drove a stolen car through the front doors of Heathcotes, but also hit two city Liquorland stores in Te Rapa and Dinsdale, causing more than $35,000 in damage and thefts.

Edmonds, who was using methamphetamine at the time, was armed with a claw hammer during the brazen daylight robbery of the Te Rapa store on July 21.

While his four co-offenders rummaged for booze, cigarettes and cash, he got the sole worker to tell him where the remaining cigarettes were, ordering the person not to look at them and not to call police until five minutes after they left.

The group took more than $22,000 worth of tobacco items, 43 bottles of alcohol worth $3856, more than $8000 in cash and also broke 28 bottles of alcohol.

Edmonds and others then targeted the Red Berry supermarket in Cambridge three days later, again driving a stolen vehicle through its entrance at 3.43am, taking cash and tobacco products worth $1000.

Edmonds’ blood would later be found on the driver’s door of the stolen Ford Ranger.

On July 31, 2021, the gang, wearing masks, and Edmonds, carrying a large knife, went into Liquorland Dinsdale about 7.30pm, pushing the female staff member away from the counter and making off with cash, alcohol and cigarettes.

On August 1 last year, while on remand in Hawke’s Bay Prison’s youth unit, a group became upset when officers told inmates in Wing 2 they would not be allowed outside for exercise until they had cleaned graffiti off the walls.

Edmonds was in Wing 1, and after the Wing 2 group broke out of their area, they freed others on to the roof and remained there for 24 hours, throwing various objects at prison staff, with one object even striking a 71-year-old Corrections officer in the back of the neck.

During Monday’s sentencing, Judge Philip Crayton said their spree of car thefts and armed robberies was “life-changing” for those they targeted.

“It’s an effect that is reported almost daily, unfortunately, in our newspapers.

“Hard-working people who are put in fear of their lives by this type of offending; for easy gain, high-value gain with little thought to the victim.”

Both victims of the aggravated robberies had since given up their jobs due to fears for their safety.

“Both of those people reflect what every day is being witnessed now in New Zealand, which is people who are trying to earn a living being the subject of significant, deliberate and very targeted offending of our retail stores.”

The judge acknowledged both defendants had difficult upbringings.

Judge Crayton noted it was “sad” Edmonds’ father was a drug abuser who taught his son how to steal as a youngster. However, the father had since turned his life around, but his son was now on the wrong path.

At the time, Edmonds’ co-offenders were his main support in life.

He and Williams were both at high risk of reoffending, although Williams was recently diagnosed with ADHD and was undergoing voluntary treatment in jail.

Edmonds instead believed there was nothing wrong with him and that all he needed to do was get a job.

Judge Crayton told him he would have to do some work on himself before the Parole Board would consider releasing him from prison.

The judge noted Edmonds’ comments in his probation report in which he said he felt “pretty bad” and that he wasn’t thinking of what the victims would be going through, along with how he was mad at himself “for doing all that dumb s***”.

Edmonds’ counsel, Gavin Boot, submitted his client was more of a follower of the offending. However, Judge Crayton noted Edmonds was “up front and centre” with the aggravated robberies.

“There’s not a lot of following going on at that point,” he said, to which Boot agreed.

After applying credit for youth, his Section 27 cultural report and early guilty pleas, Judge Crayton jailed Edmonds for five years.

However, the teenager becomes automatically eligible for parole because he has already served a third of his sentence on remand.

On multiple charges of unlawful conversion of a motor vehicle and two of aggravated robbery, Williams was jailed for three years and two months.

Belinda Feek has been a reporter for 19 years, and at the Herald for eight years, joining the Open Justice team in 2022.