Hori Gage, a Mongrel Mob member, was shot dead in front of his partner and children while waiting for a jump-start in Palmerston North, in what the Crown describes as an “execution” by rival gang members.
Black Power members Robert Richards and Royden Haenga are now on trial for his murder, allegedly carried out in retaliation for a brutal “depatching” attack days earlier on a Black Power president. Gage had not been present at that incident.
Prosecutors say the men were responding to a nationwide “call to arms” and targeted Gage, despite him not being directly involved in the earlier assault.
One co-accused has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter, while both Richards and Haenga have pleaded not guilty.
