Murder trial reveals world of midnight drug runs and guns

Anthony Doyle

Mikaere O'Sullivan warned his two sons off doing drug deals with a "dangerous" man said to carry a sawn-off shotgun inside his trench coat.

Evidence to be given in a double murder trial alleges he didn't heed his own advice.

The 250 pages of prosecution witness testimony viewed by the Herald at the High Court at Rotorua yesterday paints a picture of a world where midnight drug runs, exchanges of large sums of money, P sessions and firearms are the norm.

It also gives the first account of what is alleged to have taken place the night Rotorua truck driver Anthony Doyle, 40, is alleged to have shot O'Sullivan, 42, and his girlfriend, Toni-Anne Nathan, 39, beneath a Tauranga bridge.

Through his lawyer, Doyle has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.

Doyle allegedly confessed to the murder to fellow truck driver Neil Rodgers, saying he had met the pair under the bridge on October 31 and had gone back to his own car to get a gun. "[Doyle] said he pulled the gun up and pointed at him and said 'you shouldn't have ****ed with me, Mikaere'," Mr Rogers' evidence said.

O'Sullivan broke down "like a little girl", saying 'don't shoot me', and Ms Nathan tried to run away. "[Doyle] said 'she tried to start the car so I shot her but ****-all hit her so I had to shoot her again. When I was putting another bullet in she tried to run away again'."

The lives of the three under the bridge are alleged to have revolved around selling and using methamphetamine, and one of Mr O'Sullivan's sons, Shayhann Henry, told of a dispute between his father and Doyle over payment for drugs.

Back in 2004, his father had bought two ounces from Doyle, but had only half the $20,000 that it cost.

He wanted the rest on "tick" and said he would pay the other $10,000 in 24 hours, but when he was a day late, Doyle demanded another $5000, Mr Henry said.

Several witnesses said both Doyle and Mr O'Sullivan spoke about the unresolved debt before the murders, and Mr O'Sullivan had warned his sons to avoid doing deals with Doyle, who he called "Truckie" and said was "a dangerous man".

The two had continued dealing but the debt remained a sore point between them, with Doyle allegedly trying to find out where Mr O'Sullivan lived and Mr O'Sullivan wanting to arm himself with a gun to stay safe from Doyle.

Another son, Casino, aged 20 when he spoke to police, talked of nights doing "drug runs" with his father.

"I was really close to my father and we would do heaps of stuff together," he said. "We know heaps of the same people and drive from town to town together on drug runs."

The young man said he had witnessed his father and "Truckie" doing one deal at a table.

"There was a big suitcase full of ounce bags of methamphetamine. [Doyle] paid money right there. It was the most money I'd ever seen in my life, all in red hundreds."

Mr O'Sullivan's sons talked of seeing Doyle with guns, including a 12-gauge double-barrel "under-over" that he kept in the saddlebag of his Harley Davidson, and a pump-action shotgun cut down to 750mm that he wore loaded with three or four cartridges.

"He always wears a big trench coat. He wears the gun with a strap across his chest and it's velcroed to the side of his jacket so it doesn't stick out," Casino said.

Casino said Doyle had introduced him to P.

"I'd never done P before and my heart was speeding real hard. I'd never been so high in my life."

Several witnesses spoke of Doyle's heavy P addiction, calling him a "junkie" and a "fryer", and saying the drug made him extremely paranoid.

Early on October 31, Mr O'Sullivan and Ms Nathan - who was described as her partner's "right-hand man ... counting the money and weighing the drugs" - were in West Auckland.

Mr O'Sullivan had reportedly weighed out "point" bags of drugs at a house in Henderson before they drove south at 12.55am, telling a man at the house that he hoped the drugs would clear his debt with Doyle.

They drove at high speed to the Wairoa River Bridge at Te Puna, where witnesses reported hearing three shots fired less than two hours later.

A pathologist found Mr O'Sullivan died of a gunshot wound to the chest, fired at close range, his partner from two wounds to the head and chest, the first fired from less than 1m away.

Traces of methamphetamine and cannabis were found in their systems.

The man who heard the "confession", Mr Rodgers, owned the property where Doyle was living in Rotorua and was with him when Doyle allegedly tried to bury a gun near a white cross marking the scene of a fatal accident.