Murderer sentenced for prison stabbing

A man already serving life for murder has been sentenced to another long sentence for stabbing a fellow prisoner during a fight in the Hawke's Bay prison near Hastings.

Mongrel Mob associate Juan Marcus Sullivan, 24, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006 for the murder of a rival Black Power gang member outside a Gisborne bar, was today given a concurrent sentence of eight years and five months' jail on a charge of wounding the prisoner with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on November 21 last year.

Two other Mob members, Harlem Turi and Newton Watene, were sentenced to two years and one months' jail and 17 months' jail respectively, cumulative on existing jail terms, for their role in the attack.

In the High Court at Napier Justice Forrest Miller said the victim believed he had been set up for an assault for giving evidence against someone associated with the Mongrel Mob.

Turi and Watene had attacked him in his cell the day he arrived and while the assault was taking place, Sullivan had run across the courtyard and stabbed the prisoner a number of times with a sharpened weapon, possibly a chisel.

The prisoner was left seriously wounded, with one wound close to his heart needing urgent surgery to save his life. He spent seven days in the intensive care Unit and had still not fully recovered.

Sullivan had not been part of the premeditated attack by the other two but had joined in on his own initiative.

Justice Miller said the attack was short but lethal and Sullivan could easily have been facing another murder charge.

He said Sullivan had a high risk of reoffending and a propensity to use extreme violence without provocation.

Watene had a substantial list of previous convictions and was a committed member of the Mongrel Mob. Despite a poor educational background, he had become a team leader at the McCains vegetable processing factory in Hawke's Bay.

He had left that job to become a fulltime caregiver for his children but his spare time had led to a dependence on methamphetamine.

Justice Miller noted that all three had appeared in the dock wearing the red colours of the Mongrel Mob, describing their action as "staunch but not very smart".

- NZPA