Six men for trial over shooting

Press, 25 June 1983, Page 4

Six men for trial over shooting

Six men who were alleged by the Crown to have been involved in a gang shooting in which one member of a rival gang was killed and another injured, were committed yesterday for trial in the High Court in Christchurch on a charge against each of murder, and attempted murder. After a week-long hearing in the District Court, of depositions of evidence of S rosecution witnesses, lessrs R. M. Naysmith and J. B. Andersen, Justices of the Peace, held there was sufficient evidence to commit the six for trial for murder, and attempted murder. They were remanded to September 27, pending trial in the High Court. The defendants were Larry Thomas Geeson, aged 25, a leather worker (Mr K. N. Hampton), Russell John Keetley, aged 23, a meat grader (Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon), Keith John Knight, aged 21, a process worker (Mr P. H. B. Hall), Brian Selby Lundy, aged 23, a freezing worker (Mr M. A. Bungay, of Wellington, and Ms P. D. Gibson), Mark Andrew Sutherland, aged 26, a mechanic (Mr M. J. Glue), Vaughan Martin Watson, aged 21, a coach builder (Mr D. I. Jones and Mr R. S. Simes). Each was charged with murdering Quentin Rumatiki Martin, aged 24, and attempting to murder John Raymond Roderick, aged 29. Geeson, King, Lundy, and Sutherland were remanded in custody. Applications by counsel for a continuation of bail, originally granted in the High Court, on behalf of Keetley and Watson, were successful. Each was granted bail of $2OOO in his own recognisance, and two sureties each of 55000. They are to report daily to the police, live at addresses stipulated, and to sever all connections with the Devil’s Henchmen gang and not communicate with any of its members, or with witnesses. The six were also jointly charged with unlawfully possessing a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun and

possessing a single-barrel shotgun without lawful, proper, and sufficient purpose. On these charges they were remanded at large to October 3. Depositions or statements of evidence from 67 prosecution witnesses were heard during the week. After the completion of this evidence yesterday, counsel for the defendants reserved their defence. Mr B. McClelland, Q.C., appeared with Mr B. M. Stanaway for the Crown. The Crown alleged that the six defendants were parties to the two shootings, which occurred on the footpath outside the Highway 61 gang headquarters, 588 Worcester Street, Linwood, after midnight on Saturday, April 23. The evidence of a former president of the Devil’s Henchmen was that Geeson was not a member of this gang. Knight was a prospective member and the other four were members. Evidence yesterday was given by Detective R. W. Shannon of interviewing and taking a written statement from Sutherland. Sutherland’s statement said that he had overheard some members at the Devil’s Henchmen headquarters say they were going to go round and “throw a scare” into the Highway 61 gang. He agreed, at a member’s suggestion, to go around with others, with the shotgun, and let off a shot to scare them. Sutherland said he was not going to fire the gun. He merely went for the ride. Shortly after, he went outside and saw three members sitting in a small red van, parked in the driveway of the gang headquarters. Lundy drove the van. He did not know who owned it. Sutherland said he saw a sawn-off shotgun on the floor in the back of the van, and another object in the back which he took to be another shotgun. They travelled* by an indirect route to Worcester Street. Near the Highway 61 headquarters he crouched down beneath the window. The next thing one of the persons behind him fired two shots in quick succession.

Before crouching down, he had not seen any person on the street or near the Highway 61 house, Sutherland said. Lundy then drove to Kaiapoi. It had been arranged earlier that another member drive to Kaiapoi to pick them up. Before they reached Kaiapoi, Watson and Keetley drove up behind, in Watson’s girlfriend’s van. Later, the red van broke down and they returned to Christchurch in the van which Watson drove. They were then stopped by a police patrol. Sutherland said he did not at first believe the detective when told that somebody had been shot. He said it was never their intention at any stage to injure anybody with the shotgun. The intention was to give them a scare. He said he was quite certain that the person who fired the gun never intended to hit anybody, and he was sure the person thought nobody was there. Geeson, interviewed by Detective J. D. Sjoberg, said he had spent the evening drinking with the Henchmen. He had accompanied five others in a car looking for a party, but did not find it. He did not know in which direction they travelled. They were later stopped by the police. He did not see any firearm in the vehicle, and said he did not go past the Highway 61 headquarters. He knew nothing about a shooting that night. He was not a member of the Devil’s Henchmen. Mr Hampton objected to later evidence of this interview, and also of evidence of an interview of Geeson by another detective, on the ground of its alleged inad-

missibility. An order suppressing this evidence was made. Other evidence was given by David John Hogan, a Highway 61 member, who said he followed Mr Martin to the gate after hearing a shot and seeing Mr Roderick being dragged inside. He was a short distance from Mr Martin, outside the gate, when he heard a shot from a small red van which drove past, and Mr Martin fell to the footpath. When he returned from telephoning for an ambulance, he found Mr Martin was dead. Detective B. R. Pearce said the red Marina van allegedly used in the shooting was found in Ohoka Road, Kaiapoi about 8.30 a.m. on Saturday morning, April 23. The two left side rear windows were missing. Inside the vehicle, particu-

larly in the rear, were muddy scuff marks. The next day the detective recovered fragments of two windows from the S remises of the Devil's lenchmen gang in Ferry Road. Hardboard templates made of the window openings in the van were the same size as the panes of glass found at the gang headquarters. Detective R. Bruce said he examined the two-tone Anglia van which had been stopped by the police in New Brighton Road with the six defendants inside. He found a single-barrel shotgun under the van, and a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun in the rear of the vehicle. Also inside the van were a machete, a number of steel pipes, rods, wooden batons, and several fired and unfired shotgun cartridges.