Teina Williams is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua charged with murder. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Ryan Woodford was shot in an execution-style gang retaliation killing in the doorway of his emergency housing motel in Taupō in front of his partner and children.
The Crown says it was Taupō Mongrel Mob president Teina Williams who pulled the trigger at point-blank range after Woodford, a patched Black Power member, answered a knock at the door.
Williams is accused of escaping the Grace Foundation, a residential drug rehabilitation facility in Auckland, by wrapping tin foil around his electronically monitored ankle bracelet and driving to Taupō in the early hours of March 6, 2022.
The 34-year-old is on trial in the High Court at Rotorua before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith after pleading not guilty to Woodford’s murder.
It is Williams’ defence that someone else did it because he wasn’t there.
A co-accused who was also to stand trial for murder, Marty Graeme Durham, 43, pleaded guilty on Monday to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
He has admitted his role in the killing as a passenger in a car that was driven by the shooter.
Durham is a sergeant-at-arms, or second in charge, of the Taupō Mongrel Mob.
CCTV footage showing the shooting and Woodford screaming in pain was played to the jury during Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy’s opening address today.
The footage showed a blue Holden Commodore arriving at unit two of the Adelphi Motel at 6.25am.
A man dressed in white with a face mask on gets out of the driver’s side of the car, calls out several times and knocks on a sliding door.
He holds up a Black Power-affiliated Mangu Kaha gang patch, used to conceal a firearm.
Woodford opens the sliding door and is immediately shot. The shooter quickly gets back into the driver’s seat and speeds off.
McConachy said Woodford collapsed in the doorway in front of his partner and three children, aged 2, 6 and 7.
McConachy said Williams was not necessarily known to Woodford. It is the Crown case Williams went to seek retribution against members of the Black Power gang following recent gang tensions.
McConachy said Williams and Durham had driven to the Red Rose Motel and then Adelphi Motel – both known to house Black Power members.
She said the Mangu Kaha chapter was an affiliation of Black Power and the patch was either used by Williams to trick Woodford into feeling safe opening the door or to throw off any police suspicion that Mongrel Mob members were involved.
McConachy told the jury Williams had foiled his electronically monitored bracelet previously. She explained foiling involved putting about five layers of tinfoil around the bracelet to stop the GPS working, which concealed the wearer’s whereabouts.
McConachy said Williams was offline for about 12 hours around the time of the shooting.
Williams told others at the Grace Foundation he had been in his room all night because he was experiencing Covid symptoms.
McConachy played the jury a video presentation she said detailed Williams’ whereabouts on the morning of the shooting.
Williams was last registered at the Grace Foundation at 10.51pm on March 5.
It is the Crown case he was driving a red Holden Commodore that was seen on CCTV at various locations, including at service stations.
McConachy said Williams was careful to send in other passengers to pay for petrol at service stations so as not be seen on camera footage.
En route to Taupō, he swapped vehicles with associates and was eventually driving a blue Commodore.
Following the shooting, he switched to a silver Lancer at the Aratiatia Dam before switching back to the red Commodore.
Along the way, McConachy said Williams had associates travelling in a convoy to tamper with a roadside CCTV camera. They did this by going on each other’s shoulders and using a pole to push the camera upwards, she said.
CCTV footage showed the footage being tampered with.
McConachy said despite Williams trying to conceal himself from being seen on CCTV footage, he was seen in Te Awamutu when he parked near another CCTV camera and swapped vehicles again.
She played footage from that camera that she said showed Williams getting out of the silver Lancer and into a red Commodore. The footage showed foil around one of his ankles.
He was carrying something underneath a bundle of white clothing, which McConachy said was the firearm.
She said he swapped to a motorbike in Auckland and drove to the Grace Foundation. Two minutes after the motorbike arrived, Williams’ GPS tracker went back online at 11.16am.
The day after the shooting, on March 7, Williams cut off his bracelet completely and absconded. McConachy said he flew to Queenstown under a fake name and stayed at the Hilton Hotel before returning to the North Island.
He was arrested on March 25 in Hamilton after trying to run from police.
Williams’ lawyer, Ted Walsh, gave brief opening remarks, advising the jury to keep an open mind. He said he had to “bite his tongue” during this stage of the Crown’s case because his turn would come.
He said the case came down to who was in the car at the motel.
“His position is he wasn’t there, therefore he is not guilty.”
The trial is expected to take five weeks.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.