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Three months before he was found dead in a stream, a gang member ordered a shooting at a Taranaki property, court documents reveal.
Thomas Holland had told Anthony Heke and Tyson Hutchinson to carry out the March 2019 attack on his ex-girlfriend’s home.
Holland’s body was found by a member of the public on the Mangaotuku Stream, in the back of Devon Middle School in New Plymouth, on July 7.
The 25-year-old fugitive had last been seen alive on the night of June 24, when he was involved in two police chases.
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It has been confirmed that he drowned, but his death remains before the coroner.
Simon O’Connor
Three months later he was found dead in a stream at the back of a New Plymouth school.
Holland, Heke and Hutchinson were members of Uru Taha, or West Side, a gang that has been in Taranaki for almost two decades.
Heke, 22, and Hutchinson, 19, were also involved in another shooting in New Plymouth, on Plympton St, and Hutchinson has only been linked to a subsequent shooting on a Mongrel Mob platform on Lawry St, New Plymouth.
The two, who are in custody, appeared via audio-visual link in the New Plymouth District Court this week.
A summary of Crown’s events said that on March 29, 2019, Holland instructed Heke to “send a clear message” to Holland’s former partner regarding “perceived misbehavior.”
Holland said this would be done by shooting at an Omata Rd property where the woman had previously lived, according to the facts.
Heke accepted the job and asked for Hutchinson’s help.
Supplied
Holland had ordered Anthony Heke to carry out the March 2019 shooting on Omata Rd.
Around 10 p.m., Heke and Hutchinson drove to Omata Rd and Heke fired a shotgun at the house and a car.
They returned to an address on Plympton St where Heke called Holland to tell him that “the work had been done.”
Heke and Hutchinson burned the clothes they were wearing and dug a hole in the property and buried the shotgun.
The following morning, another member of Uru Taha arrived at the address of Plympton St, where Heke and Hutchinson remained.
He had with him a man looking to buy $ 170 worth of methamphetamine.
Heke said he could get the class A drug and they all went to various addresses to buy it.
But the search was unsuccessful and when everyone returned to Plympton St, the man realized that his cell phone had disappeared.
JOHN VELVIN / THINGS
Two days after carrying out the shooting, Heke carried out another, this time on Plympton St, New Plymouth. One man received a serious gunshot wound to the arm.
He hit Heke, Hutchinson, and the other gang member on their whereabouts.
Heke stirred and started hitting the man on the head, knocking him unconscious.
When the man woke up during the continuous assault, Heke ordered Hutchinson to find a shotgun from the laundry room.
The victim had seen the gun before and Heke had told him it was loaded “in case a crack demon or another gang or police comes,” according to the documents.
Heke grabbed the gun and shot the man in the arm.
Hutchinson then grabbed the firearm and exhausted the back of the address to get rid of it, according to the recap.
The weapon has never been located.
Using the victim’s vehicle, Heke took the heavily bleeding man to Taranaki Base Hospital and dropped him off in front of the Emergency Department.
The victim’s car was found days later in the Marfell area.
When the man went to the hospital reception, he collapsed. Extensive medical work was required to save his arm.
The police were called and the hunt for Heke began.
SIMON O’CONNOR / THINGS
Days later, the police tracked Heke to an address on Tavistock St, New Plymouth. He was arrested on the scene.
The next day, Heke and Hutchinson went to an Inglewood address to confront a man they believed had told police about the shooting on Plympton Rd.
Heke put a gun to the man’s head while Hutchinson hit the man in the head.
The man managed to escape by getting out of a bathroom window and running towards the neighbor.
The police were called and Heke and Hutchinson fled.
Heke was tracked to a Westown address three days later.
While he remained in custody, Hutchinson carried out another shooting.
Simon O’Connor
A member of the gang and an accessory to previous shootings, Tyson Hutchinson shot a group of mixed-race mafia gangs in October 2019.
On October 24, Hutchinson used a rifle to fire at a Motouroa-based Mongrel Mob platform on Lawry St, taking off in a car he had stolen two days earlier.
A police chase came to an end when Hutchison crashed into a concrete wall outside a house on Tukapa St, Westown.
He was arrested on the scene while paramedics in San Juan treated him for back injuries.
SIMON O’CONNOR / THINGS
After the shooting, a police chase ensued. Hutchinson crashed into a fence and was arrested at the scene.
In court Tuesday, both pleaded guilty to a series of charges related to the two previous shootings.
Hutchinson has previously pleaded guilty to charges related to the Lawry St. shooting.
Judge Tony Greig filed the pleas, returned the men to custody, and ordered them to return to court on June 19.
