A man accused of fatally shooting a fellow gang member and wounding his brother during a milestone birthday party says a hit was put on his life after the killing and he and his partner fled Wellington that night fearing for their safety.

Rawiri Zane Wharerau, a patched member of Mangu Kaha – a gang associated with Black Power, was shot and killed and his brother Hemi Wharerau was seriously injured.

The party at the brothers’ house in Stokes Valley in December 2023 was a surprise 50th for their cousin, Robert Huaki snr – a patched Black Power member.

A man and woman also at the party, whose names are suppressed, are now on trial in the High Court at Wellington charged with murder and attempted murder. The woman also denies an additional charge of assault with a weapon.

The man, who is giving evidence in his own defence, told the court today that text messages he’d received after he’d fled the house informed him Wharerau had been killed.

He didn’t believe them and thought there’d been a mistake.

But he told his partner to get rid of the gun and his patch, fearing it would be taken from him with force.

If that happened, he’d be outcast and wouldn’t be able to give his side of events, he told the court. Since the shooting, a hit had been put on his life, he said.

Fearing for their safety, the couple fled Wellington, leaving their child behind but collecting him days later.

‘Remember where you come from dog s***s’

While giving evidence, he spoke of the events that night and how he was “p****d off” when a derogatory slur about a rival gang was directed toward him and his partner.

“Remember where you come from dog s***s”, he claimed Huaki snr said, a disrespectful term for the Mongrel Mob.

While the man is a patched member of Mangu Kaha, both he and his partner had a family member in the Mongrel Mob.

The man said he was annoyed because he didn’t like people attacking him or his partner, but when he stood up, Huaki snr allegedly told others sitting around them, patched Mangu Kaha members, to attack him.

Asked by his lawyer, Elizabeth Hall, if a Black Power member could tell a Mangu Kaha member what to do, or direct them to attack another Mangu Kaha member, the man said they couldn’t.

The man said there was a bit of pushing and shoving, which surprised him because his fellow gang members had turned on him. At that point, he realised it was time to leave.

“I said wait until the bros hear about this, we’ll sort it out later.”

He said the couple got into their car and left the party and drove back to their house, a short distance away.

The man claimed the alleged murder victim, Rawiri Wharerau, had also got into the car and was sitting beside him.

He said Wharerau told him, “Don’t worry about it bro, he’s jelly [jealous].”The man said he felt “gutted” about what happened and wasn’t happy about it.

At their house, he alleged Wharerau had asked for a gun, which the man told the court he’d collected from Wharerau’s place that morning. He said he’d asked for it because after the party he and his partner planned to take a holiday up north.

He explained the gun – a Ruger rifle – belonged to the gang and he’d borrowed it before to go hunting.

The man retrieved the gun from under a couch and the three of them returned to the party.

But as they pulled up, they’d been surrounded by a group on the street, including members of the Huaki family, he told the court. He thought there was going to be trouble.

“I just jumped out with the gun and they’ve told me to put it down and fight like a man.”

The man said he couldn’t recall exactly what they were saying, but they were “intimidating, troublesome”.

He said he’d passed the gun to his partner and fought. He’d been punched in the head a few times and his teeth were chipped, he said.

Eventually, the couple got back into the car and left the party, returning to their house.

His partner had gone to bed and while standing in the kitchen, wearing only his underwear and singlet, he’drealised that he’d left $2000 inside a bag he wore to the party.

It was then that Wharerau called, upset and asking the man to return the gun and collect his money, he claimed.

The couple got back in the car and drove around to the party, parking at the bottom of the driveway to the house.

He’d gone up the driveway and seen everyone sitting at the party. A woman had rushed at his partner and everyone stood up, he told the court.

The man said he took off the safety catch to the gun and fired a warning shot.

Hemi Wharerau had rushed at him, he claimed, and he’d pushed to stop him advancing, but Hemi kept getting up.

The man said he pushed Hemi again, before two shots went off. As they ran down the driveway, he heard people behind him and fired another shot into the darkness.

The man said that during the following weeks, he heard “heaps of stories” about what happened that night. He’d also heard there was a hit out for him, “an eye for an eye”, he said.

But he claimed he would never have killed Wharerau, a friend and man he’d known for 20 years.

“I was shattered, I was in disbelief,” he said of his death.

“I was just trying to spook them off so they’d stop chasing me and my missus, so we could get away.”

Crown: It doesn’t make sense

Under cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop challenged many aspects of the man’s account.

She said no one else had recalled seeing the “pushing and shoving” the man had described after Huaki snr’s comment. He denied this had made him angry, but the man said he was “bummed out”.

Turning to the fight on the street, he maintained he’d defended himself and his partner, who were under attack.

When Bishop suggested the neighbour’s phone footage of the fight on the street showed only him being aggressive, he said it hadn’t captured the start of the fight, where he’d been set upon.

The video shows him punching three people, including Huaki snr.

Finally, Bishop questioned his decision to return the final time after the phone call, despite events earlier that night.

“That moment you decided the right thing to do was to go back to the party where you’d knocked out the birthday boy and sort things out and get your money back?” she asked.

“No, it’s normal,” he responded.

Bishop said the man’s account simply didn’t make sense.

The trial before Justice Dale La Hood continues next week.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.