Racial taunts before shooting
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
WARWICK BLACKLERCries of “shoot the blacks, shoot the niggers” were allegedly heard outside the Lone Legion gang headquarters prior to Carl MacDonald being fatally shot in the stomach, a Blenheim court heard yesterday.
Three more men were charged with murdering Carl Edward MacDonald on September 15 when they appeared in court yesterday.
Corey William Mackle, 28, Peter Christopher Tait, 49, and Jason David Warren, 26, entered no pleas when they appeared before Judge Tony Zohrab. They were charged together with Aaron James Harvey, 34, accused last week of shooting Mr MacDonald, 39.Mackle’s application for bail was denied by Judge Zohrab. The other three accused did not apply for bail. They will all reappear in court for a pre-depositions hearing on October 23.
The four men each face a second charge of unlawful assembly outside the Lone Legion Motorcycle Club gang house on Gasgcoine St, Riversdale, where Mr MacDonald was shot. Two others appearing in court yesterday charged with unlawful assembly, Gregory Ferguson Cleland, 36, and Charmaine Fay, 22, were granted bail until the pre-depositions hearing.
Yesterday Judge Zohrab outlined the alleged events leading up to Mr MacDonald’s murder.
About 9am on September 15 all six people before the court were seen outside the gang headquarters on Gasgcoine St.
When a car drove past, rocks were thrown at the vehicle. One smashed the car’s windscreen.
The damaged vehicle was taken to Elizabeth St and the driver returned to the gang headquarters on foot with two of his brothers. The defendants retreated into the confines of the motorcycle club property; verbal abuse was exchanged and then weapons were produced including a machete.
Harvey held a .22 calibre rifle and, allegedly encouraged by Tait to: “shoot the blacks”, “shoot the niggers”, he fired it. Mr MacDonald was hit in the stomach and he later died of his wound at Wairau Hospital.
In court yesterday defence counsel Philip Watson sought bail for Mackle, an apprentice builder. Mr Watson reminded the court that his client was innocent until proven guilty, but police prosecutor Sergeant Steve Frost said evidence against Mackle was quite strong.
Approving bail would also put both the community’s and Mackle’s personal safety at risk, Mr Frost said. Blenheim was a small, close-knit community, and the situation was still quite “volatile”, he said.
Mackle lived at the gang headquarters, was a member of the gang and was wearing his Lone Legion Motorcycle Club patch when arrested, Judge Zohrab said.
Ongoing disharmony between the gang and the victim’s associates meant independent witnesses could be easily intimidated if the key suspects were granted bail, he said.
Bail was not sought for Warren and Tait by their counsel, Michael Hardy-Jones.
Witnesses had identified Cleland as being inside the property when the altercation took place and it was said he even went outside before the shooting to tell the victim and his brothers to leave.
Cleland and Fay, described in court as Warren’s girlfriend, were granted bail; ordered to live at stated addresses and follow a 7pm to 7am curfew.
Neither may associate with any of the co-offenders or travel within 200m of the Gasgoine St residence.
Dr Yvette Tinsley, senior law lecturer at Victoria University, said it was not unusual for more than one person to be accused of murder.
The conditions are explained in the Crimes Act 1961, Section 66 Parties to Offences. A person who had offered some encouragement or help or had set off on a common purpose and could foresee that someone would be hurt as a result could be found liable for the same offence.However, sometimes a court would drop the charge against associates to a manslaughter charge, she said.
In August 12 men were accused of the murder of Wanganui toddler Jhia Te Tua, although only one shot from a high powered rifle killed the girl.
The men were in three cars involved in the drive-by shooting at the home of Jhia’s Black Power father in Puriri St in Wanganui in May.
