Two men have admitted their role in a ram-raid that left a Taranaki Highway 61 club pad riddled with bullets, but a third maintains his innocence.
The trio were each defending charges of aggravated burglary and discharging a firearm with intent.
Mitchell also faces a further two charges – commission of a crime with a firearm and arson – following a linked incident which occurred eight days later, in the early hours of December 13.
Before the trial began on Thursday, Moke’s lawyer Peter Brosnahan and Caleb’s lawyer Julian Hannam entered guilty pleas to the firearm charge and the aggravated burglary charge was dismissed.
Barkle convicted the pair, gave them their first strike warning and remanded them in custody for sentencing on October 2.
The crown alleges the men were part of a group that crashed their cars into the fortified compound and used a shotgun and a .22 rifle to shoot holes in the building.
When the trial got underway, Mitchell was the only defendant.
Witness Tania Marie Eichstaedt told crown solicitor Cherie Clarke she had been living at the club pad with her partner John Jubb, a patched member of the club, and called it home.
Eichstaedt said the couple were in their room when they heard two big bangs in quick succession that shook the building, followed by the sound of smashing glass.
“John said, ‘That’s bullets. That’s someone shooting. Get to the ground.'”
When the shooting stopped, Eichstaedt got up and put her head out of the door trying to work out what was happening when a bullet narrowly missed her, she told the court.
“It just went straight past my head. It was obviously a bullet.”
Eichstaedt said she heard another woman who lived at the address, Kathy Gudopp, scream and yelled out to her to keep her head down.
“There was lots of bullets flying.”
After hearing a car leave, Eichstaedt said she went outside and heard people talking before seeing a car drive away from the scene with up to nine or ten people in or around it.
Earlier Gudopp, who was the partner of club president Peter Jones, told Mitchell’s lawyer, Kylie Pascoe, she had seen him visiting the club pad with James Thomson, who was a patched member of the club but had been kicked out before the ram-raid.
Gudopp said Mitchell, who wasn’t a patched member of the club, didn’t come across as having any issues with club members and would muck in when there was work that needed to be done.
She said partners and friends were not involved or permitted to know about the club’s business and she didn’t know why Thomson had left the club.
The trial continues.
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Source: Stuff