Mongrel Mob member Raymond Jury appeals against conviction and sentence for murdering gang mate

Raymond Jury, a member of the Rogue chapter of the Mongrel Mob, was jailed in 2020 for murdering a fellow gang member but has challenged his conviction and sentence in the Court of Appeal. Photo / Ben Fraser

A longstanding patched member of the Mongrel Mob murdered a fellow gang member by stomping on him, bashing his head with a hammer and strangling him with a towel as he pleaded for his life.

Now the killer, Raymond Iveagh Jury, is pleading with an appeal court to overturn his conviction.

Jury, in his 60s, was jailed for life with a minimum period of imprisonment (MPI) of 17 years in 2020. It was a sentence that sent his supporters into a frenzy.

Shouting and barking erupted as members of his whānau began scaling the Rotorua courtroom barrier between the public gallery and the dock to touch and kiss Jury.

More guards had to be called in to help remove the family as they pulled gang signs and swore at sentencing judge, Justice Paul Davison.

A recently released Court of Appeal decision detailed how Jury murdered Trevor Rikihana, a 69-year-old who weighed 49kg, on January 30, 2019, over money Jury claimed was owed to him by Rikihana.

The men, who were members of the Rogue chapter of the Mongrel Mob and had known each other for about 40 years, ate a meal together at Rikihana’s home on the outskirts of Rotorua before an argument broke out between the pair.

Rikihana was heard “screaming and pleading for his life” during a prolonged attack by Jury, who then dragged Rikihana to a car, tied him up and dumped his body on a friend’s driveway.

“There were 79 identifiable injuries, including 23 to his head and face, and 18 injuries to his neck. The towel found in front of the bach where Mr Rikihana slept was probably used in an effort to garrotte Mr Rikihana,” the decision said.

Jury defended the murder charge at a trial in the High Court at Rotorua in August 2020, claiming it was the now-dead Mongrel Mob member Rex Maney who had killed Rikihana. But Jury was found guilty.

Two months later he was sentenced, and now, almost four years later, he has turned to the Court of Appeal to appeal against his conviction and sentence, with partial success.

He challenged his convictions on several grounds including that the High Court erred when it allowed the Crown to adduce hearsay statements from Maney in which he said Jury was responsible for the murder of Rikihana.

Maney died of cancer less than six months after Rikihana’s death but wrote a letter detailing what happened on the night of the murder. Before he died, he was also interviewed by police.

Another ground was that Jury’s trial counsel made a mistake by not calling Jason Maney as a witness. Jason Maney, Rex Maney’s whāngai son, previously told an investigator that when he was dying, Rex Maney confessed he was responsible for Rikihana’s death.

The final grounds were that Justice Davison failed to caution the jury about the reliability of Rex Maney’s statements, and that Jury’s trial counsel erred by not adducing evidence of Rex Maney’s previous conviction for perverting the course of justice.

High Court Justice Paul Davison, pictured here in 2012, sentenced Raymond Jury to life with an MPI of 17 years. Photo / NZME

The appeal against his sentence argued the High Court was wrong to conclude the case triggered Section 104 of the Sentencing Act, which called for an MPI of at least 17 years to be imposed.

It questioned whether the murder was “committed with a high level of brutality, cruelty, depravity, or callousness”, whether Rikihana was vulnerable, and if it was manifestly unjust to impose an MPI of 17 years.

In dismissing the appeal against conviction, the Court of Appeal found that while Rex Maney’s statements were inconsistent, those inconsistencies were not sufficient to render the statements inadmissible.

It also found Jury had instructed his trial counsel not to call Jason Maney as a witness, that Justice Davison’s failure to give direction on the statements was an error but there was no real risk it would affect the outcome of the trial, and that there was no miscarriage of justice when Rex Maney’s conviction was not put before the jury.

The Court of Appeal noted in its decision that Jury’s blood was found on the front of the shirt worn by Rikihana, no forensic evidence linked Rex Maney to the murder, and Jury’s car was found burnt out the next day.

“It is reasonable to infer that this was a deliberate act by Mr Jury to destroy forensic evidence against him.”

But the Court of Appeal did allow the appeal against sentence.

While the senior court found the murder did involve “a high level of brutality, cruelty, depravity, or callousness” and that Rikihana was particularly vulnerable, it ruled the High Court failed to adequately assess the impact of Jury’s profound cultural and social deprivation.

Details of Jury’s background contained in a cultural report, some described as “chilling”, provided a causative connection to his offending, and meant an MPI of 17 years was manifestly unjust.

The Court of Appeal also considered Jury’s age to be a factor, but not in itself determinative.

“A very long MPI is likely to mean Mr Jury will die in prison.”

Jury’s MPI was set aside and substituted with one of 14 years.

“This accurately reflects Mr Jury’s personal circumstances and provides a more appropriate sentence that reflects the significance of the offending and the principles set out in the Sentencing Act.”

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.