Isaiah Natana and Te Whiu Apanui went on trial in the High Court at Hamilton last year defending charges of murder, injuring with intent to injure, and aggravated robbery. Shane Toman also defended the aggravated robbery charge and was found not guilty.
Natana was the only one found guilty of murder, along with the remaining charges, while Apanui was found guilty of aggravated robbery.
Today, Natana, 30, and Apanui, 27, returned to the High Court for sentencing before Justice Rebecca Ellis.
Tāneatua, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, is known as a Mongrel Mob town and on February 14, 2022, Apanui received his gang patch.
Together with others including Natana, they celebrated with drinks and drugs. The party continued into the next day.
The pair, along with others, then drove to Mason’s home to get some methamphetamine from either him or a female known to Mason.
But she wasn’t home, so, with Apanui waiting outside as a lookout, Natana went inside to talk with Mason about getting some drugs - despite not having any money on him to pay for it.
In her summation of the case, Justice Ellis said it was likely Mason didn’t want to “tick” Natana the drugs, but whatever was said, it was enough to send Natana into a fury and he began inflicting a series of savage blows on the 57-year-old, who had been on dialysis for nearly 20 years.
The noise from the blows was so loud it could be heard outside on the street.
The group left and parked at the Gull petrol station, while Natana and another person walked over to the Bakehouse.
A man in his 60s was sitting outside eating a pie. Natana asked him for a lighter. The man didn’t have one but gave him $4. Natana assaulted him anyway.
He then assaulted him a second time before attacking another man and taking his motorbike. Natana went on to crash the man’s motorbike, leaving it a write-off.
‘He was a kind, humble, and loving man’
Mason’s daughter Katie Kinghazel told the defendants their actions that day were “unforgettable and something you will have to live with for the rest of your life”.
In her victim impact statement, she described her father as a “kind, humble, loving man who was very witty and funny at the same time”.
He was someone she confided in and she was still struggling to come to terms with his death.
Natana’s counsel Caitlin Gentleman accepted her client didn’t have any background issues, and didn’t qualify for credit for remorse as he still denied the offending.
But she said before the murder, he only had a common assault conviction to his name.
Along with a previous good character discount, she submitted he also deserved credit for the 19 months he spent on electronically monitored bail.
Steve Franklin, on behalf of Apanui’s counsel Rebekah Webby, urged Justice Ellis to adopt the pre-sentence report recommendation of home detention.
Apanui was remorseful, it was submitted.
Franklin pushed for a discount for his client’s background, which saw him drinking and doing drugs at a young age, and joining a gang to find a “sense of belonging”.
Justice Ellis took a starting point of two years and nine months when sentencing Apanui.
She then applied various discounts before coming to an end term of 11 months’ home detention.
Apanui was also ordered to pay his share of the reparation for the motorbike of $1650.
Justice Ellis said while Natana still denied the offending, “the evidence against you was compelling”.
She described his attack on Mason, who was twice his age and did not fight back, as “callous and brutal”.
“You were, in my view, the ringleader,” she told him.
After applying a one-year discount, she jailed Natana for life, with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and has been a journalist for 19.
