As a man lay dead on his garage floor, Leon Wilson fetched a blue tarpaulin and rope from the wall, intending to tie it around the body, a jury has heard.
“So I got my tarpaulin and I said, ‘Don’t fucking stand there, show some fucking respect and wrap this guy up,” Wilson told police in a taped interview after Mitchell Paterson’s body was found dumped in the water at McLaren Falls, near Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty.
Wilson is on trial for Paterson’s manslaughter at the High Court in Hamilton.
The Crown allege that Paterson, 26, was delivered to Wilson’s home in July last year, dead, after being held in a choke hold.
In a police video interview with Detective Paul Van Der Zee, soon after the body was found, Wilson said he only intended to chat with Paterson after hearing that the local drug dealer had been talking about him.
“I did not kill the man, I did not ask anyone to kill Mitchell Paterson, I never told [Simon Walker] to do that.
“I’m trying to help you (police) get a bigger picture. I decided to do this (interview) for the betterment of this man and his family, [so they can get justice].”
In the early hours of July 12, Paterson, a Ngāruawāhia father of one, was lured to the car by Walker under the guise of a drug deal.
But on realising Walker was there to deliver him to Wilson, president of the Waikato chapter of the Nomads OMC, a struggle ensued.
Walker had his right arm around Paterson’s neck, in a headlock position.
Paterson kicked out the rear passenger window and another man, Christopher Smith, entered.
On arrival at Wilson’s Pohutukawa Dr home, in Hamilton’s Pukete, Walker and another man dragged Paterson to the garage where there were attempts to wake him.
“If [Paterson] passed away, I didn’t want him lying there looking like that,” Wilson said in the police video interview.
“I was trying to give him a bit of dignity man, he was lying on the concrete looking like a dead piece of fucking meat.”
Wilson said there were a group of people at his home, and upon realising Paterson had died, they all went into shock.
“Everyone was in shock, and so was [Walker].
“And I grabbed a rope from off the wall in my shed, wrapped it around the tarpaulin, and even at that moment, I wasn’t too sure of what we were going to do or how we were going to make this right.
“Everyone took off, no one wanted to help … to stick around.”
Wilson then said to Walker, “What the fuck have you brought to my house?”
“You can put your hand up for this, there’s no way any of us are taking the blame for what you have done.”
Walker, 36, has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter, kidnapping, obstructing the course of justice and interfering with human remains.
Paterson’s body was removed from the house by others in the group, but before he left, Wilson said a karakia.
“Last thing I done before [Paterson left], I made everyone come together and we had a karakia.
“Everything was so wrong. I couldn’t just let the man drive away [without] at least opening up the heavens for him to get him to the next realm.”
Wilson, 49, also faces charges of kidnapping and conspiring to defeat justice.
Two of his associates are also standing trial.
Smith, 34, is charged with manslaughter, kidnapping, and conspiring to defeat justice.
And Chloe Nardiah Leigh Kerridge has been charged with kidnapping and conspiring to defeat justice.
The trial, in its fifth day, is being presided over by Justice Paul Davison and is set down for two weeks.
Four others; Grant Stewart Wickens, 33, Dylan Boyle, 21, James Lee Green, 27, and Kyra Betteridge, have all pleaded guilty to charges related to Paterson’s death. Walker and Wickens are awaiting sentencing.
Source: Stuff