BIKIE’S BRUTAL DEATH
HOW THEY CAUGHT THE KILLERS
MAX Waller came prepared to fight dirty on the evening he was stabbed to death at Broadbeach.
Almost four years after he was killed by six stab wounds, it can be revealed the Bandido bikie nominee was “well known as a person who regularly armed himself with guns and weapons”.
Several photographs posted on social media before his death show the 28year-old sleeping with a handgun and posing with a machinegun and knuckle dusters.
Other social media posts published by Waller almost a month before he was slain show tubs of protein powder alongside lines of cocaine and a black gun.
The photograph is captioned “Gym time!!!”
In another image, Waller stands side on, looking away from the camera, holding a gun in his right hand.
Friends comment on the photograph, describing the man as “king crab”.
Waller, 28, died outside the Broadbeach apartment complex Carmel by the Sea on June 23, 2013.
He suffered wounds to his chest and arms and his bloodied body was found by a friend who had been staying on the sixth floor of the building.
Three men – Mongols bikies Wade Yates-Taui and Benjamin Thomas Mortimer and non-bikie co-accused Cohen Andrew Smith – were originally charged with Waller’s murder, but pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to manslaughter on Monday.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
“On the night he was killed it is pretty clear he (Waller) took weapons to the fight,” a source told the Bulletin this week.
It is believed Waller, of Hope Island, took to the fight a knife and Taser which was found on his dead body with the prongs bent backwards, showing signs it had been held threateningly against another person’s body.
CCTV of the night Waller died shows him stumbling toward the Broadbeach apartment, heavily intoxicated by drugs.
He walks more than a block after being stabbed at a nearby park before collapsing outside the Broadbeach apartment complex about 5.40am.
Toxicology results revealed the 67kg man’s body contained a “high level of methamphetamines and amphetamines” at the time of his death.
The evening Waller was killed was not the first time he and the men who this week pleaded guilty to manslaughter faced off against their cage-fighting mate and rival bikie gang member, but this time things were different – it was out of the ring.
The men were friends and knew each other from cagefighting circles before things went sour, sources say.
On Monday, defence lawyer Michael Gatenby, who represented Yates-Taui and Mortimer, said outside court the incident had “nothing to do with any motorcycle club”.
“It seems to have been a relationship, it’s always about a girl,” Mr Gatenby said.
“The irony of the whole thing is that these were a group of friends.
“It’s a tragedy for all four families, someone lost their life and these people were unfortunately involved.”
It is understood Smith fronted Waller on the evening he was killed because he believed Waller was sleeping with his girlfriend.
Yates-Taui has been described by police as the getaway driver.
The patched Mongol and cage fighter was dramatically arrested about 10 months after Waller’s death and extradited from the US.
He was found “living the high life” at a plush Los Angeles hotel and had reportedly partied with chapters of bikie gangs in Thailand and the US, where he celebrated the 44th anniversary of the Mongols and rubbed shoulders with the gang’s interna- tional president, “Lil Dave” Santillan.
Yates-Taui also allegedly planned to travel to Bali at the invitation of an Indonesian Rebels bikie after Waller’s death before he was swooped by US marshals.
Police believe the brutal stabbing of Waller may have been arranged over text message.
During Yates-Taui, Smith and Mortimer’s committal hearing on the Gold Coast in 2016, Travis Shelley, who said he was smoking ice with Waller at Carmel by the Sea the night he was killed, said Waller had received a phone call and text messages, which he thought were from Smith, that left him “frustrated” on the night he was stabbed.
“One of them rang up and they wanted to fight him,” he said. “I’m not sure who he was with.”
He said he warned Waller not to leave by himself but later noticed he had left the apartment.
Less than an hour later, Mr Shelley said he found his friend’s body.
The hearing, which featured a squad of six heavily armed police officers in the court precinct, also heard another woman told friends to “take care of” Waller just four days before his death.
Rhiannon Taylor told how another woman “screamed” down the phone to friends: “I want Max Waller dealt with” after he allegedly took money from her to repay a believed drug debt she owed to Mr Waller’s friend, “Smurf”.
“She left (the hotel we were staying at) but he followed her out and took some money from her wallet in the car he said she had stolen from Smurf ... and kicked the car,” Ms Taylor said in court last year.
After the altercation at the car the woman is alleged to have said: “I’m going to deal with this”.
The woman was asking people to “sort Max Waller out” and said, “I want Max Waller dealt with” down the phone line days before Waller was murdered, the committal hearing was told.
All three men who pleaded guilty to having involvement in Waller’s death were remanded in custody this week.
They will face court again on June 9 for a sentencing date to be set.
THE IRONY OF THE WHOLE THING IS THAT THESE WERE A GROUP OF FRIENDS. IT’S A TRAGEDY FOR ALL FOUR FAMILIES, SOMEONE LOST THEIR LIFE AND THESE PEOPLE WERE UNFORTUNATELY INVOLVED. DEFENCE LAWYER MICHAEL GATENBY