Waaka Davis admitted murdering Aaliyah Wilson (inset) in July last year. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
In a rare case of “transferred malice”, a man has been sentenced to life in prison for murder, even though he didn’t intend to kill his victim.
Waaka Davis had intended to kill someone, but it just wasn’t meant to be 23-year-old Aaliyah Wilson, whom he shot in the head with a shotgun in July last year.
Instead, his intended victim was another man whom he’d quarrelled with in the weeks leading up to the incident and attempted to bait him into a fight to the death.
Ordinarily, a murder conviction requires a deliberate intent to kill someone, as opposed to manslaughter, where someone dies but the perpetrator didn’t intend to end their life.
However, in Davis’ case, the Crown relied on the legal precedent of “transferred malice” where he intended to kill Anthony Gabolinscy, but missed and killed Wilson.
His murderous intent was still there, the Crown says, but he got the wrong person.
According to the summary of facts, Davis and Gabolinscy had been friends and were both members of the Mongrel Mob.
After Gabolinscy was released from prison, Davis became a regular visitor at his bail address but soon wore out his welcome by making “unwanted advances” on his friend’s partner.
Davis was asked to leave the address, but returned the next night to break windows at the property.
Over the next few weeks, Davis challenged Gabolinscy to fights to the death, and texted and called him multiple times without an answer.
On the night of July 17, 2024, Davis sourced a firearm and made his way to the house of a friend, who gave him a lift to Gabolinscy’s house just after midnight.
Wilson, Gabolinscy and several others were socialising inside.
Davis entered the lounge where Wilson and the others were sitting and fired his shotgun, hitting the 23-year-old woman in the head.
Wilson had been sitting on a couch next to Gabolinscy and died at the scene.
Gabolinscy picked up a loaded shotgun that was nearby and fired back, but Davis had fled the scene and discarded his firearm.
Davis initially denied murdering Wilson but changed his plea to guilty on the morning his trial was due to begin earlier this year.
Today, in the High Court at Palmerston North, Justice Paul Radich sentenced Davis to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
“You clearly put some degree of thought into the murder,” Justice Radich said.
“You forced your way into the house with your face covered and your gun raised.”
Justice Radich said that although he’d had a “nomadic” and “troubled” background, there was no link to the offending.
In a psychologist’s report, Justice Radich said Davis appeared to place some blame on Wilson for associating with the wrong people, and hence being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Justice Radich said Davis appeared to be remorseful for killing the wrong person, rather than for the offence itself.
As the sentence was read, members of Wilson’s family shouted at Davis: “Die in prison.”
Wilson’s mother Alysha Wilson said it had been 517 days since her daughter had been ripped from her, and she now lived with crippling anxiety.
“People tell me I’m strong, I am not. I don’t live, I only exist,” she said.
“I talk to her when the house is quiet, I hold her things and cry.”
Wilson said she constantly imagined what her daughter’s final moments had been like.
“Did she feel pain, was she scared, and did she know what was happening?
“I would give anything to change places with her, to hold her one more time and protect her as I was supposed to.”
Aaliyah’s father, Robert Philips, addressed Davis, who was in the dock beside him.
“She didn’t deserve this; she was just a little girl,” he said.
Philips said he now struggled to sleep since the murder, and spent most of his nights simply walking the streets.
Crown prosecutor Anna Barham said it was not an accidental killing and that Davis had planned the murder in the days leading up to the incident.
Davis had sent Gabolinscy a number of unanswered messages and calls, challenging him to a fight to the death in the eight days before the attack.
Barham said he was effectively trying to bait the other man into a fight.
On the night, Davis armed himself with a shotgun, wore a balaclava, and a poncho to cover the gun with. He went to a friend’s house and asked for a ride to the address.
While at his friend’s house, he took selfies of himself with the firearm before being dropped off before midnight.
“Aaliyah was killed by the incredibly high-risk course of action that Mr Davis executed in trying to kill Gabolinscy, whom he had quarrelled with earlier,” Barham said.
“This wasn’t a gang rivalry; it was an individual dispute that Davis escalated unnecessarily.”
Barham said that Davis took an unacceptable risk, and in order to have killed Gabolinscy as intended, he would have needed to miss three other people in the lounge where they were all sitting.
Davis’ lawyer, William Hawkins, questioned the level of planning that his client put into the murder, and said that although there were a number of text messages and calls sent to Gabolinscy, they were born out of frustration.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.