Robert Richards (left) and Royden Haenga are accused of murdering Hori Gage (centre) while his partner Amethyst Tukaki was next to him and their three children were in the back seat of their car. Composite photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
Robert Richards (left) and Royden Haenga are accused of murdering Hori Gage (centre) while his partner Amethyst Tukaki was next to him and their three children were in the back seat of their car. Composite photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
A suspect who told police he didn’t know anything about the killing of a man in front of his partner and children changed his story after harrowing audio of the murder was played to him by police.
“That’s the sound of his kids, looking at him as he dies,” apolice officer told the man after they pulled him in to be interviewed after the murder of Hori Gage.
“Listen to them. This is going to stay with them for life.”
The interview with the man, who has name suppression, was played on Tuesday to the High Court at Palmerston North, where two Black Power associates are on trial for Gage’s murder on August 6, 2023.
Gage, a Mongrel Mob member from a different chapter, hadn’t been at that brawl and was gunned down while he sat in his car outside his home with his family.
Hori Gage, 27, was fatally shot in front of his family in Palmerston North on August 6. Photo / NZ Police
The Crown says it was Robert Richards and Royden Haenga who had gone out looking for rival gang members to kill in retribution for the attack on the local Black Power president.
Haenga admits to being at the scene but says he didn’t intend to kill Gage, while Roberts denies being there at all.
In the police interview, the key Crown witness,who was known to Haenga, initially denied any involvement with the homicide or being at a Black Power address known as “The Farm” where members of the gang had been congregating before Gage was killed.
The man was then shown cellphone polling data that placed his and Haenga’s phone at The Farm at the same time, despite him claiming he was somewhere else and had spent the day with family.
He was also shown text messages from his partner to another person one minute before Gage was killed, saying that he wasn’t with her and that he was with Haenga.
However, in the interview the man claims he wasn’t at The Farm and hadn’t been at the Black Power meeting.
Robert Richards and Royden Haenga appeared at the High Court in Palmerston North for the start of a four-week trial. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
He was then played audio from CCTV on Croyden Ave in Palmerston North where the shooting took place.
The CCTV did not show the shooting but recorded the gunshots and the aftermath.
Gage’s partner and children can be heard screaming before a white Nissan passes in front of the camera.
It’s part of the Crown’s case that this car belongs to Haenga.
After this, the man changed his story and admitted to being at The Farm.
“Honestly mate, I wasn’t there [at the scene of the crime],” the man said. “I wasn’t there, I stayed at The Farm.”
He was shown photos of gang members police believed were at The Farm on August 6, but said he was not a Black Power associate and did not know many of the people there, especially because they were wearing balaclavas.
The man, who is not a current gang member, said the people at the address were told to take their patches off before leaving.
The rest of his evidential interview will be played to the jury tomorrow.
‘My partner just got shot’
Earlier today, an interview with Gage’s partner, Amethyst Tukaki, was played to the court. It was filmed just hours after Gage had been killed.
Tukaki told police their car battery had gone flat and they were waiting for a jump start from her mother at their home on Croyden Ave, with three of their children in the back seat.
As she and Gage climbed back into the car she told police she heard a “tick, tick, tick” sound.
Hori Gage was killed in a shooting on August 6, 2023, in Palmerston North. Photo / Facebook
“I thought someone was throwing stones, then I seen someone by my partner, by the door,” she said.
Tukaki told police that she got out of the car and saw a man holding a gun. She later described him as wearing a balaclava and being tall and skinny.
The man then got back into a waiting car, which drove off, she said.
“The street was so quiet,” Tukaki said, before approaching a neighbour, telling him “my partner just got shot”, while also on the phone to police.
Operation London
It would be six months before police arrested anyone in relation to Gage’s murder and the officer who was second in charge of what was labelled Operation London, Detective Sergeant Dave Wilson, told the court police were concerned about escalating gang tensions after the assault of a local Black Power president at a bar on Castle St on August 4.
That president suffered serious injuries, including a partially severed finger, multiple cuts to his scalp and two collapsed lungs.
The court was shown CCTV footage of him arriving at Palmerston North Hospital after the incident, where he can be seen hunched over with his hands on his knees before falling on all fours in the hospital entryway.
The senior Black Power member was assaulted by two Mongrel Mob associates, who also took his gang patch off him in what’s known as a “depatching”.
After this, Wilson said multiple Black Power gang members travelled from Hawke’s Bay to Palmerston North and were observed congregating at several addresses in the city.
A white Nissan allegedly belonging to Haenga was seen on CCTV around the city, including turning up at a motel where members of the Mongrel Mob were staying.
The same car was also photographed at The Farm and in a harrowing video played to the court, it can be seen leaving the scene where Gage was shot.
Wilson told the court the same car was set on fire and dumped near The Farm and three Black Power members were charged and pleaded guilty to arson.
The jury was shown images of the scene where Gage died, and Wilson described how bullet casings were found on the street and bullet fragments inside Gage’s car.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
