Key players silent in gang shooting trial ‘‘. . . blood was pouring out of his buttock. There was a sizeable little hole, about a knitting needle size. He was frustrated, angry and in a little bit of shock.’’ A witness gives evidence about the shooting
Only four people know what really happened as gunshots rang out unsettling what was otherwise a peaceful Saturday afternoon in the township of Pareora.
In the moments after the shots, one of those four people, a gang associate, yelled out to neighbours to call an ambulance as he nursed a gunshot wound to his backside.
It was an unusual incident, shocking residents who described the township, with a population of about 500, as ‘‘really quiet’’ with not much happening.
But something did happen that day, and the other three people involved, all Christchurch-based members of the Mongols gang, found themselves before a jury on charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm – of which they would ultimately be found guilty.
None of the four at the centre of the case were willing to give evidence during the trial, leaving the jury to make a decision based on the cases put forward by the Crown and defence lawyers, and the evidence of witnesses and neighbours who saw parts of the incident as it played out that July afternoon in 2021.
Mongols gang members Dylan Lewis Wheeler, Layne Brent Ford and Thomas Gary Marshall went to Pareora on July 10, 2021. They were all charged after Jacob Martin Geels was shot at an Abbott St address, requiring treatment in Timaru and Christchurch hospitals.
Geels was also jailed as a result of the incident that day, after police discovered 14 firearms, two of which were prohibited, at the property.
He admitted 38 charges, relating to the firearms, ammunition and drugs located at the property, and was jailed for 22 months, just two months before those charged with shooting him went on trial.
A Pareora resident, who lived close to the scene of the shooting, described the township which has a roadside cafe, truck fuel stop and a meatworks, as ‘‘a great and safe place to live’’ the day after the shooting.
‘‘This is a really quiet area and not much happens around here,’’ he said.
Geels, Wheeler, Ford and Marshall were the only people outside at the Abbott St address at 1.45pm that Saturday, when Geels was wounded. None were willing to make statements to police, or give evidence at the trial.
Geels was the first witness called by the Crown on January 23, and replied with a simple ‘‘no comment’’ to all questions put to him by Crown prosecutor Shawn McManus. After about nine questions, Judge Stephen O’Driscoll intervened and eventually excluded him from the trial.
The three defendants chose not to give statements, as they are entitled to do, and also elected not to give any evidence.
Geels was wearing only a pair of boxer shorts when the white car carrying Wheeler, Ford and Marshall arrived at the property where he was living in a sleep-out.
‘‘All three entered the property and confronted Geels,’’ McManus said in her opening brief on the first day of the trial.
The incident was over in a matter of minutes, several shots (at least three) were fired from a .22 calibre rifle and the gang members fled, leaving Geels bleeding and yelling for help and that he had been shot.
The commotion was heard by people in other buildings on the property as well as neighbours, but none witnessed the actual event.
The Crown called almost 30 witnesses, 10 of them were neighbours or people in the street at the time. Some heard shots, some didn’t; some saw gang members, some didn’t; some heard an argument, and some didn’t; some saw gang patches, some didn’t; some saw a weapon, some didn’t.
One witness, a neighbour, briefly saw a man holding a firearm, raising and lowering it and firing one shot. Police recovered three fired .22 shells and two unfired rounds when searching the property, but conceded that no bullet holes were located in the property’s infrastructure.
Another witness discovered Geels wandering around ‘‘with blood pouring out of his buttock’’.
‘‘There was a sizeable little hole, about a knitting needle size. He was frustrated, angry and in a little bit of shock,’’ they said.
There was also a trail of blood to a caravan on the property, where the 14 firearms discovered by police were located. Evidence from police was there was blood on the door and handle.
Throughout the trial no motive was ever put forward, although it was said Ford and Geels knew each other from their days associated with the Road Knights gang.
McManus said one of the defendants had been wearing a GPS tracking bracelet which put him at the scene, there was GPS data and CCTV footage of the trio travelling to and from Christchurch, and all accepted they were at the address.
The defendants were arrested six days later when police raided the then Mongols headquarters on Main South Rd, Burnham. They have been in custody since.
McManus said the Crown did not need to prove which of the defendant’s shot the victim because of ‘‘party liability’’ in that the others intentionally aided or assisted the principal offender and that could be by being encouraged by words or conduct or both.
The Crown’s claim was while only one had the firearm, the two others were there for support and encouragement.
‘‘They exited the car together, they were all wearing their gang patches and all confronted the defendant together.’’
McManus also said the trio acted with common intent of intimidating Geels.
Witnesses described Geels as aggressive and abusive towards police, and one constable told the jury he had been ‘‘aggressive, loud, swearing at me and yelling. He told me to get the f... off the property and call an ambulance’’.
Evidence from a forensic specialist in firearms and ammunition for ESR (Institute of Environmental Science and Research) in Auckland said there was no link between two .22 calibre weapons recovered at the scene and the spent shells and unfired ammunition.
The three defendants each had separate lawyers – Andrew Bailey (Ford), Thomas Harre (Wheeler) and Ethan Huda (Marshall) – with all claiming there were many pieces missing in the Crown’s case.
Huda submitted the defendants did not take the firearm to the scene, and it was actually part of the Geels cache.
‘‘How can you be so sure one of the three men who exited the vehicle was carrying the firearm?’’ Huda asked the jury.
‘‘Each witness saw snippets of a very brief event . . . each missed crucial parts.’’
Harre also said the witnesses did not see everything ‘‘so there are some big holes’’ in the evidence which represented an event that happened in a couple of minutes.
‘‘What happened? We don’t know. No-one saw what started it,’’ Harre said.
‘‘We don’t know who had the firearm to begin with. We don’t know where the firearm came from. We don’t know which round hit him.
‘‘Each of these questions go to the heart of the Crown’s case. There are too many unanswered questions, too much doubt,’’ Harre said.
Bailey said there was a ‘‘massive black hole’’ in the Crown’s evidence and added a witness saw Geels chasing someone. Ford, he said, had gone to the back of the property and ‘‘Geels had gone at him . . . the logical view is Geels is the aggressor’’.
He told the jury they also needed to be satisfied the shots fired were intentional.
Judge O’Driscoll told the jury they had to be satisfied the Crown had proved the elements of intent and their decision had to be unanimous.
He added the Crown had also invited the jury to draw a number of inferences in their case as it sought to prove the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, saying an inference conclusion was not a guess.
He said there was no evidence of who took the gun to the scene, who got out of the car with the firearm, what was said, that Geels had a machete, where the shooter was aiming the gun, that the gun was already at the scene and belonged to Geels and taken away by one of the defendants.
‘‘Do not speculate and fill in the gaps. You are entitled to draw inferences that are logical. Look at the evidence before you decide . . . consider whether the evidence supports the inference,’’ Judge O’Driscoll said.
The jury believed the Crown’s evidence.
Wheeler, Ford and Marshall will be sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on May 9.