Key witness tells court Mongrel Mob members 'saluted' Jhia's death

Wanganui Mongrel Mob members continued drinking and giving gang salutes in a happy mood after learning they had shot two-year-old Jhia Te Tua, a court heard yesterday.
Six men are on trial in the Wellington High Court charged with the toddler's murder.
Shane Roberts, a former Mongrel Mob prospect, told the court the mood at the gang's Aramoho headquarters on May 5 last year was "too happy for [him]".
"It was just like nothing had happened," he said, describing the atmosphere after news of the child's death had filtered back to the gang.
Mr Roberts, a witness for the prosecution, drove the rear car in a three-car convoy along Puriri St on May 5 last year. Yesterday, he gave his evidence through videolink from an undisclosed location.
Mr Roberts told the court he had been a prospect under murder-accused Karl Check. His main duty was to ferry Check and his friends around Wanganui while they were drinking.
On May 5, he said he drove Check, and his co-accused Hayden Wallace and Godfrey Muraahi, along the Black Power-dominated Puriri St, where they were pelted with bricks and bottles.
Check was furious his car windshield had been broken, and Wallace said he would "make them pay" and "get them for [Check]", Mr Roberts said.
After joining others in Hackett St, the men swapped cars and headed back to Puriri St.
Mr Roberts drove co-accused Richard Puohotaua's white Ford Falcon, with Puohotaua in the passenger seat and Muraahi and co-accused Erueti Nahona in the back.
When he asked why there were no weapons in the car if they were going to a fight, he said Muraahi told him "Hayden will do it".
Mr Roberts said as the convoy travelled along Puriri St, he heard gunshots and saw Wallace leaning out a car window with a high-powered rifle.
Later, during the getaway, he saw Wallace leaning out of the car, yelling slogans and giving Mongrel Mob salutes. Muraahi and Nahona were impressed, Mr Roberts said.
"[Muraahi] was calling him a gangster & and they started saying 'patch him up, patch him up'."
After regrouping at the gang's headquarters, Mr Roberts asked Check if he knew shots would be fired.
"He was just looking at me like I shouldn't be questioning him, like I didn't really have a say."
Mr Roberts said he was then told to drive Muraahi to check on Wanganui Mongrel Mob president, and Erueti Nahona's father, Randall Nahona. During a discussion with Randall Nahona and another senior gang member, it emerged a two-year-old child had died.
Back at headquarters, Mr Roberts asked Wallace why he had fired the gun. He said Wallace replied: "To shoot the niggers".
Nigger is an offensive term for Black Power members.
"[Wallace] was bleating like 'Did you see me? Did you see me?'," Mr Roberts said.
Once news of Jhia's death spread around the house, people continued drinking as if nothing had happened.
"Junior [a Mongrel Mob member] said the baby would have just grown up to be a nigger baby anyway and [Muraahi] was like 'true boy, true' and they carried on giving their mob salutes and that."
Mr Roberts is yet to be cross-examined. The trial, which is set down for five weeks and is in the middle of its third week, will resume tomorrow after a break today.