Tihema Nuttall poses for a Rotorua Daily Post photographer before standing trial for a road rage shooting. Photo / Andrew Warner
A Mongrel Mob rapper who shot a stranger in the face after picking up his children from school has had his jail term reduced by 10 months on appeal, partly because of his tough childhood.
Tihema Nuttall, also known as rapper Temm Dogg, was originally sentenced to nine years and one month in jail for the violent road rage incident, but the sentence has been reduced to eight years and three months’ jail.
He appealed to the Court of Appeal, with Justices Jillian Mallon, Mary Peters and Christine Grice agreeing the initial sentence was “manifestly excessive”, partly because it didn’t take into account Nuttall’s childhood surrounded by violence and drugs.
Nuttall, a patched Mongrel Mob member with more than 40 convictions, is a musician with a string of albums and millions of online streams.
A jury found him guilty in October last year of wounding William Merito with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on Te Ngae Rd on August 5, 2021.
Nuttall, aged 30 at the time, had a loaded shotgun in his car when he picked up his children from school and headed towards the central city on Te Ngae Rd.
He stopped at roadworks at the Tarawera Rd intersection and got out of his car to speak to someone he knew in the car behind.
When the light turned green, Merito – a stranger to Nuttall – passed Nuttall and words were exchanged.
Nuttall got in his car and followed Merito, driving alongside him and shooting him in the face. Merito was able to pull over but suffered serious injuries to his face, head and eyes. He suffers from ongoing sight problems.
Nuttall claimed at his trial he wasn’t the shooter, but, through his lawyer, admitted at sentencing it was him.
During his original sentencing, a Rotorua District Court judge incorrectly calculated his sentence to be nine years and one month, when it should have been nine years and eight months.
When he was brought back to court days later to address the error, Judge Anna Skellern said the nine-year, one-month sentence would remain.
The appeal decision, recently released to the Rotorua Daily Post, said Nuttall told a pre-sentence report writer he was angry at the time and his behaviour was “totally unacceptable, dangerous and potentially fatal”.
He said he carried the gun for self-defence because of strong gang tensions in Rotorua at the time and because his house had been shot at.
The report said he was at “very high risk of harm and a high risk of reoffending”.
But the appeal decision said Judge Skellern’s starting point of 11 years’ jail was too high, based on similar cases, and should have been 10 years.
The appeal judgment said the sentencing judge should have given a slightly higher – 15% instead of 10% – reduction for Nuttall’s background circumstances.
The appeal judgment referred to a cultural report that went into Nuttall’s background.
He was born while his mother was in prison. She was released soon after, but he grew up around serious family violence, drug abuse and with his father in and out of jail.
His stepfather was charged with the attempted murder of Nuttall’s brother, who was in intensive care after being suffocated, according to the cultural report.
He was allowed to use drugs at home and given guns when he was 14, about the time he started drinking alcohol and smoking methamphetamine.
Nuttall, who had been in and out of youth justice and prison most of his life, was addicted to methamphetamine for a long time but had kicked the habit in the past five years.
The cultural report, known as a section 27 report, concluded the origins of Nuttall’s offending could be traced back to his lack of positive child and youth development, characterised by instability and exposure to serious family violence, drug abuse, anti-social behaviour and gang subcultures.
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.
Correction
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Nuttall appealed to the High Court and appeared before Justice Jillian Mallon. He appealed to the Court of Appeal and appeared before three justices, including Justice Mallon.