Mob presidents’ lawyer tells jury to acquit

A lawyer turned to Bob Dylan for inspiration while trying to convince a jury amongrel Mob president had nothing to do with the death of a junior mobster allegedly under his control.

Chris Tennet told a jury in the High Court at Palmerston North yesterday Jeremiah Su’a did not order the death of Codi Wilkinson in September 2019.

At one point Tennet flashed laminated paper featuring his main points in large bold type to the jury, akin to Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues music video and Winston Peters’ infamous ‘‘no’’ sign in a 2008 press conference.

Su’a, his brother Mariota, Dean Arthur Jennings, Quentin Joseph Moananui and Jason David Signal deny murdering Codi Wilkinson, badly hurting his friend Kyle Rowe, kidnapping the pair and participating in an organised criminal group.

The Crown says Jeremiah Su’a, the president of Aotearoa Mongrel Mob’s Manawatu¯ chapter, planned in September 2019 to violently kick Wilkinson and Rowe out of the Mob for robbing a drug dealer and not sharing the proceeds. But Tennet, closing his case, said there was no evidence to pin any planning on Jeremiah Su’a.

Mariota Su’a, however, was recorded talking to someone in prison about cleaning up the gang and Jeremiah Su’a doing nothing about it.

Jeremiah Su’a spoke to police about not being able to control his brother and never spoke about planning Wilkinson’s death, despite his phone being tapped for two months and his text messages being gathered by police, Tennet said. ‘‘Who is the organiser? Who is putting the discipline back in the mob?’’

There was not enough evidence to even prove the violence against Rowe and Wilkinson, who suffered wounds from a weapon like a machete, was planned, Tennet said.

Any violence was dished out in a short time, meaning it could have been a ‘‘panic reaction’’ rather than a planned assault.

It was important that no-one was charged with attempting to murder Rowe, Tennet said.

A lot of other people could have attacked Rowe and Wilkinson, including mobsters from other chapters who were in Manawatu¯ at the time, he said.

Jeremiah Su’a denied giving

Rowe and Wilkinson their patches, and gang experts who gave evidence at the trial said they were not overly familiar with the structure of the mob in Manawatu¯.

It then made sense to believe Jeremiah Su’a’s evidence, when he said he could not kick the pair out of the mob because he did not bring them in, Tennet said.

The jury had to be careful when considering evidence given by Jennings, who told police he saw Jeremiah Su’a with a machete at the time Wilkinson was assaulted.

The jury will likely start considering verdicts on Monday.