Life for ‘main guy’ in gangland hit
Man to serve at least 171⁄2 years for execution-style murder of husband and attempted murder of wife
Aman has been jailed for life for his central role in a South Auckland execution-style killing claimed to have been ordered by the Comanchero Motorcycle Club’s top brass.
In the High Court at Auckland yesterday Justice Anne Hinton sentenced Viliami Taani to life imprisonment.
He will serve at least 17 years and six months. For attempted murder he was sentenced to 11 years and two months, which will be served concurrently.
Justice Hinton said the crime had involved a high level of callousness and brutality. “I agree this was an execution-style killing.”
Taani had shot Epalahame Tu’uheava and his wife, Yolanda (Mele) Tu’uheava, several times on April 30 last year in Ma¯ngere.
Mele Tu’uheava’s survival “was nothing short of miraculous”, Justice Hinton said.
“It is difficult to imagine a more serious attempted murder. You could hardly have done more to ensure that Mrs Tu’uheava died.”
The couple had been lured to Greenwood Rd under the pretence of a drug deal before being gunned down.
Tu’uheava, a 28-year-old father also known as Hame or Abraham, died within minutes after being shot at least seven times, including three times in the head with a .22 calibre semi-automatic rifle.
But Yolanda playing dead, surviving despite two shots to the head with a revolver.
Police charged Taani and two other men with the murder and attempted murder.
The other two, Fisilau Tapaevalu and Mesui Tufui, stood trial in the High Court at Auckland last month.
The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for the duo, who are cousins and have links to the Comanchero Motorcycle Club.
Taani, also a cousin and a Comanchero member, was described by Yolanda during the trial as the “main guy” in the execution-style killing.
He had admitted both murder and attempted murder a week before Tapaevalu and Tufui went to trial.
The hits on the Tu’uheavas may have been ordered by
leaders of the Comancheros in Australia, the court was told.
The accused had been given the “green light to kill” Tu’uheava, who had a link with the Australian Nomads gang, the court heard.
You could hardly have done more to ensure that Mrs Tu’uheava died. Justice Anne Hinton
Mele, who was shot at least four times and still has a bullet lodged in her head, testified in the trial via video link from an undisclosed location.
It is understood she has been in witness protection.
On April 30, at a late night meeting, she saw the defendant Taani pointing a gun at her husband, she said. As they ran away, they were being shot at.
One of the trio approached her and she was shot twice in the head with a .38 revolver pistol. “She fell to the ground but was still conscious,” Justice Anne Hinton said.
She could hear her husband calling her name. As he tried to run away, Taani shot him twice in the side of his body with a .22 calibre rifle.
Taani then walked up to Tu’uheava and shot him twice more before shooting at Mele again and leaving the scene.
At Tapaevalu’s address in Mangere the group burned the cellphone used to contact Epalahame Tu’uheava.
It wasn’t until about 6am the next day that a passing motorist saw the shot couple on the side of the road and called emergency services.
Justice Hinton said Mele Tu’uheava’s victim impact statement said her vision was deteriorating and she needed glasses. “And in what must be a significant understatement ‘her life is not the same.”
She cannot work because of her injuries and her benefit left her with just $20 at the end of the week. But she is grateful to be alive because she does not know how her son would have coped without both parents.