Northcote drive-by shooting: Man who drove gunman worried about the consequences of conviction

An armed officer at the scene of the shooting in Northcote, on Auckland's North Shore, in 2021. Photo / Hayden Woodward

The wheelman in a drive-by shooting, which caused a victim to lose an eye, is worried about the impact a conviction will have on his prospects for work, travel and renting a house.

Nashyn Williams told a court he had to resign from his work as a scaffolder after being convicted for his crime, and now he can’t get any job interviews.

Williams was 18 when he drove a co-offender to a park in in Northcote, Auckland, in February 2021.

A crowd of young people had gathered to watch a pre-arranged one-on-one fight at a time of on-going tensions between rival groups.

Sitting in the passenger seat alongside Williams was a 16-year-old armed with a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun.

As Williams slowed the car down, the younger teen fired off a shot which hit another teenager in the face.

The victim lost his left eye and much of his vision in his right eye.

The teen who fired the shotgun was later charged with wounding with reckless disregard.

Williams pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of the wounding. He was convicted and sentenced to six months of supervision and three months of community detention last year. The judge refused to grant him a discharge without conviction.

Williams appealed that decision to the Court of Appeal.

Through his lawyer, he argued that the judge had “overstated the gravity” of Williams’ offending, and was wrong to take into account his “supposed knowledge” that the co-offender had a firearm and intended to use it.

“Counsel submits that the judge was wrong to cite a comment in the pre-sentence report which stated that it was difficult to believe that the appellant did not know what his co-offender’s intentions were.”

The appeal also said that the judge improperly disregarded evidence that Williams, a scaffolder, would lose his job on conviction and there would be a “real risk” to his future employment prospects.

Williams was also concerned about “stigma and shame” of a conviction, restrictions on travel and difficulty to secure rental properties.

The appeal argued that there was insufficient weight to mitigating factors such as Williams’ youth, his previous good character, volunteer work and time on bail without any breaches.

In an affidavit, Williams told the appeal court he was unemployed.

“I resigned from my workplace. It was all too hard. I knew that I couldn’t stay in the role. I resigned rather than be fired,” he said.

Before the shooting, Williams was considered one of the top three scaffolders in his company, but clients - such as schools and hospitals - required the criminal records of workers on-site to be disclosed.

Williams said that he would not go back even if he won the appeal. The key supporter there who “took a chance on me” had left.

“I am young. I don’t have any qualification[s] and I have this conviction, which means I don’t get interviews.”

The Crown, however, said that gravity of the offending was reflected in the substantial and permanent loss of vision suffered by the victim.

“The appellant had just seen his co-offender discharge a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun at a group of young persons gathered in a public park,” the appeal judges said.

“He chose to take both immediate and longer-term action to assist his co-offender to evade apprehension and prosecution.

“He immediately sped away from the crime scene with ... the principal offender in the front passenger seat of the vehicle in order to enable him to avoid arrest.

“He later disposed of the vehicle which has not been recovered by police.”

The Court of Appeal judges said it was a serious crime, and the dismissed the appeal.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.