Sao Yean murder trial: Short-lived jury deliberations to continue next week

A Hamilton jury is now contemplating whether Mihingarangi Tynneal Rameka, Anton Rite, Daniel Payne, and Neha Grey are guilty of the murder of Sao Yean in 2020. Photos / Belinda Feek

A jury not only has to assess the Crown’s allegations about how a Hamilton man was murdered and dumped in a water trough but also the defendants’ own version of events, most of whom opted to give evidence and turn on each other during proceedings.

Justice Timothy Brewer today summed up the five-week-long case involving four defendants charged with the murder of Sao Yean, also known as Sao Young, on March 13, 2020.

Mihingarangi Tynneal Rameka, Daniel Payne, Neha Wiremu Grey and Anton Rite are all charged with the murder of Yean, 40, whose broken and battered body was found in a water trough on farmland at Gordonton a month after he was last seen alive.

Rameka, Payne and Grey also face additional violence charges in relation to alleged assaults on Jesse Whitiora and Mongrel Mob member Dean Mihinui.

Justice Brewer told the jury that it wasn’t a trial where it was only the crown claiming a version of events, but “you have the defendants turning on each other and to an extent, supporting what the Crown says”.

“But then it comes to supporting their own interests, departing from what the Crown says.”

He also added they had “quite a task” ahead of them regarding the reliability and credibility of witnesses and their evidence.

He urged them to assess their motivations and also whether they were affected by drugs at the time.

The jury’s deliberations were just brief after being sent out about 3pm, before being sent home for the long weekend at 3.30pm.

The Crown case is that Rameka, heavily pregnant and a paranoid drug dealer with Mongrel Mob affiliations, together with patched Black Power enforcer Payne, sought retribution for the death of their friend Christopher Matatahi in a fatal drug overdose.

Even though it was Rameka who allegedly sourced and supplied the MDMA at the 2019 New Year’s Eve party that was later found to be laced with heroin - killing Matatahi and hospitalising others - she sought to blame others, Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam said.

Rameka and Payne were first to zero in on patched Mongrel Mob Notorius member Mihinui, who was taken to Rameka’s Byron Rd home in Hamilton’s Enderley and beaten on the front lawn.

Nine days later on March 12, Whitiora, who fell ill after consuming the drugs at the party, was taken to Byron Rd.

There, he was beaten in the house and the shed before being put in the boot of a car and driven to Matatahi’s house on Casey Ave, McWilliam said.

When Payne, also known as “Damage”, said he would bury Whitiora in the same place Matatahi died, the dead man’s girlfriend Te Aroa Puke protested, claiming Whitiora was innocent and he was soon let go.

Later that night, a friend of Rameka’s - Narath Chourn - delivered Yean to the Byron Rd property.

Rameka and Payne had spent a week “hunting” Yean because he was friends with Whitiora and had been seen in a rival car.

The body of Sao Yean, also known as Sao Young, or 'Black', was found dumped in a water trough on a rural property near Gordonton on April 13, 2020.

McWilliam said it was in the garage at Rameka’s house sometime after 4am on March 13, when Payne and Grey were called back to the property, that Yean was savagely beaten and his body disposed of by Rite and Grey near Gordonton about 7am.

It wasn’t me

However, defence lawyers for Rameka, Payne, and Grey all pointed the finger at Rite, who they claimed was high and took Yean voluntarily from the house, returned later with Yean in the boot of the car, collected Grey and then stopped in Gordonton to murder Yean because he was known to have “a big mouth” and Rite was afraid of being recognised.

Quentin Duff, on behalf of Payne, pointed to Rite as a “rookie meth user, very high and paranoid”.

Rite was the one who took a reluctant Yean from the car at Byron Rd and later, he “lost the plot” and beat Yean to death in front of Grey as they were on their way to Huntly, forcing Grey to help him dump the body, Duff said.

He said Payne was innocent and the witness accounts of Whitiora and Rameka’s cousin and flatmate at the time, Shanelle Horotini, could not be relied on.

If Yean was killed at Rameka’s property, ESR teams would have found proof.

Jessica Tarrant, for Grey, said the evidence from those prosecution witnesses should be disregarded.

She said Whitiora benefited from testifying because by doing so he secured bail and housing, and that Horotini - nicknamed “Baby Shark” - did not understand the word retribution and could not pronounce it despite it being in her witness statement.

Tarrant said Rite’s girlfriend Te Aroha Te Waaka was also not a credible witness because on the night she was so “fried” on drugs she spent hours in a bedroom at the Byron Rd house “besotted with a pink fluffy” toy and unaware of whether she was alone in the room or not.

Rameka’s lawyer Rob Weir said the Crown did not know exactly what happened in the Byron Rd garage and it was having “a bob each way” by claiming Yean either died in the garage or died later from his injuries in the water trough where he was found face down in the water.

He cautioned the jury about reading too much into text messages between Rameka and Payne leading up to March 13 that the Crown claimed painted a picture of the pair planning the assault on Yean.

However, Adam Holland said his client, Rite, was randomly at the house that night and only helped get Yean from the car when Yean kicked out at the pregnant Rameka.

He said Rite was a “relative nobody” who had the misfortune of being there when Yean arrived and had no interest in seeking revenge for Matatahi’s death as they were not friends.

Once Rite realised violence was to be meted out he wanted no involvement and it was Horotini who heard Rameka, Payne, and Grey in the garage during the brutal assault on Yean, Holland said.

He argued that some prosecution witnesses appeared reluctant only because they were extremely fearful of Payne and the threats he’d made against them.