A patched member of the Highway 61 OMC, whose North Taranaki property was the target of a shooting, appeared uncooperative in the trial of the man accused of pulling the trigger.
Trini Tito was called to give evidence on Monday in New Plymouth District Court on day six of the jury trial of Mitchell Whittaker.
The Crown alleges Whittaker was one of the people who crashed two cars into the compound of the Highway 61 motorcycle club headquarters in Norman St, Waitara, on December 5, 2017, and opened fire.
He has also been accused of returning to Waitara eight days later and pumping four rounds into Tito’s cars.
The car Whittaker is alleged to have been travelling in during the shooting was then driven to the field of Waitara Central School and set on fire.
In court, Tito refused to be sworn in, arequirement before giving evidence, even when instructed to do so by presiding Judge Garry Barkle.
Judge Barkle dismissed the jury. When the trial reconvened Tito was not in the courtroom and the Crown called another witness.
Earlier in the day Tito’s former partner, Tracey Gilchrist, spoke about the night of the shooting and how she was alone at the Warre St property, which she shared with Tito.
She described how she saw on the house’s security camera a car slowly driving backward and forward past their house moments before she heard gunshots.
She lay on the ground and thought “s***, they’re coming for us.”
When pressed by Whittaker’s lawyer Kylie Pascoe about tensions between the Highway 61 club and the Black Power, Gilchrist said she wasn’t privy to matters of the club.
But it was heard she told police at the time that Black Power members “are after my partner”.
A common theme in Gilchrist’s evidence was her fading recall, with some of her evidence contradicting her statements to police at the time.
She said she had blocked out much of that period and broke down when telling the court she was trying to move on from that part of her life.
Gilchrist did, however, speak about seeing Whittaker in Waitara the evening of the shooting and how he had “given her a look” of intimidation.
It has been heard Whittaker’s mate James Thomson had lived with Gilchrist and Tito and was also a member of Highway 61.
But Thomson was kicked out of both the Warre St residence and the club only days before the shooting of the Norman St headquarters.
Gilchrist said Whittaker, who his lawyer says is not a member of any club, turned up at the house armed with a baseball bat after Thomson had moved out in an effort to retrieve some of his mate’s stuff.
One of the items was a guitar case from under a couch, which Gilchrist earlier told police contained a gun.
However, in court she was no longer sure.
“It could have been a gun, it could have been a guitar,” she said.
The trial began last Monday, with co-offenders Caleb Whittaker and Sharif Moke also defending charges of aggravated burglary and discharging a firearm in relation to the earlier incident.
However, on Thursday they each entered guilty pleas to the firearm charge and the aggravated burglary charge was dismissed.
They were remanded into custody for sentencing on October 2. Thomson has already been convicted for his “central role” in the Norman St incident.
Whittaker’s trial continues.
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Source: Stuff