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Security was tight in the High Court at Auckland today as a young mother of three who is a member of one of the region’s most prominent Mongrel Mob-affiliated families was sentenced to life for a “revenge”-fueled vigilante stab attack on a “happy-go-lucky” acquaintance who was held captive and delivered to her for retribution.

Jimel Desma Tiana Burns-Wong-Tung, 25, was found guilty of murder in September but still denies that she was the one who killed 22-year-old Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa in November 2021, despite CCTV in a South Auckland cul-de-sac having captured her violent attack just minutes before he was dropped off at an urgent care centre bleeding to death from multiple stab wounds.

Justice Matthew Muir agreed with Crown prosecutor Todd Simmonds today that under normal circumstances the “frenzied, brutal and prolonged” murder would call for a minimum term of imprisonment of at least 17 years because of the inappropriate vigilantism, her callus behaviour after the attack and Ngaronoa’s vulnerability as a captive.

Tago Kepa Hemopo (left) and Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung appear at Auckland High Court in relation to the death of Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa in November 2021. Photo / Jason Oxenham

But in the end, the judge decided such a sentence would be “manifestly unjust” when considering her transient childhood, which involved sleeping at gang pads and, after both parents were incarcerated, on the streets.

“You behaved like the gangstress you were largely conditioned to become,” Justice Muir said, settling instead on a minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years.

Jurors were not told of the defendants’ gang connections during the trial earlier this year because the killing was never alleged to be gang-related. But the subject of gangs, in general, did bubble to the surface as security protocols were altered to accommodate the large numbers of Mongrel Mob members and supporters who made the courthouse their second home for over a month as they faithfully observed each day of the trial.

Her gang background was discussed openly for the first time at today’s hearing.

The defendant’s father, Willy Wong-Tung, known as King Willy Dog, died in 2017. He and other family members were senior members of South Auckland’s Mongrel Mob Notorious chapter and Wong-Tung at one point served as president.

A T-shirt commemorates the life of former Mongrel Mob president Willy Wong-Tung, the father of murder convict Jimel Burns-Wong-Tung. Wong-Tung died in 2017.

Prosecutors alleged during the trial that Burns-Wong-Tung had been “furious” over suggestions by the victim a day earlier that a relative of hers had engaged in sexually inappropriate behaviour with a toddler. Although the allegation was later described as laughably false by both Burns-Wong-Tung and the toddler’s own mother, it set off a chain of events in which Ngaronoa was held captive by two of his uncles and brought to Burns-Wong-Tung for what was supposed to be a “vigilante justice”-style “hiding”.

The uncles, Thomas and Rocky Ngapera, both pleaded guilty on the eve of the trial to conspiracy with intent to injure and attempting to pervert the course of justice. They were sentenced in October to three years and two months’ imprisonment.

Burns-Wong-Tung admitted in the witness box that it was her seen on CCTV arriving at a Weymouth cul-de-sac in a bright red jumper on the Sunday afternoon of the fatal stabbing. She was then seen rummaging through the boot of her car - to retrieve a knife, prosecutors alleged, while she insisted it was to look for shoes - before the SUV containing Ngaronoa in the back seat arrived and parked in the middle of the street.

Gisborne resident Rangiwhero Toia Ngaronoa, 22, died in November 2021 after he was dropped off at a South Auckland medical facility with critical injuries. Photo / Supplied

The grainy, partially obstructed footage then showed Burns-Wong-Tung march towards the SUV before what appeared to be a significant struggle with Ngaronoa. Two bystanders described hearing shrieks and screams coming from the SUV — one of them recalling that Burns-Wong-Tung’s fists were moving like “pistons”.

Burns-Wong-Tung told jurors she had gotten into a fistfight with Ngaronoa after he kicked her in the stomach, but she insisted she didn’t have a knife with her and he had no visible wounds as the confrontation ended and both vehicles sped off.

But just one minute and 19 seconds later, Ngaronoa’s uncles called 111. Roughly seven minutes later, another CCTV camera at Takanini Medical Centre showed Ngaronoa’s uncles dragging him into a Takanini medical centre, motionless, covered in blood and with eight knife wounds.

Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC urged the judge today not to view Ngaronoa’s death as a planned killing - as characterised by the Crown - but as an intended “hiding” that got out of hand. He sought a minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

Justice Muir said he was obliged to give Burns-Wong-Tung the benefit of the doubt, but even if it was a reckless death instead of a planned one it was one of the worst reckless murders he’d seen as a judge.

“It is the stuff of nightmares for those who have to relive it,” he said, referring to the victim impact statement of Ngaronoa’s grandfather — the only representative of the victim’s family to attend today’s hearing.

The courtroom was filled, however, with supporters of Burns-Wong-Tung and her partner, Tago Hemopo, who was found guilty during the same trial of conspiracy to injure. Hemopo drove Burns-Wong-Tung to the scene of the killing in their family vehicle but did not know a knife would be used in the attack, defence lawyer Dale Dufty said.

Muir noted that Hemopo, a patched Mongrel Mob member, also had a traumatic upbringing because of his family’s involvement in gang life. He took on the responsibility of being the lookout for a tinny house from a young age but was not involved much in school and at 35 years old is still illiterate, the judge noted, ordering a sentence of two years’ incarceration.

Jurors convicted Tago Hemopo of conspiracy to injure 22-year-old Rangiwhero Ngaronoa but acquitted him of being an accessory to murder after the fact. Photo / Michael Craig

“You probably never had a chance, and those responsible for your care ... should hang their heads in collective shame,” he said.

As for Burns-Wong-Tung’s childhood, the judge said she appeared to have been protected to an extent by her father’s high rank within the gang and she did “derive love a support within the community”, but it also meant she was exposed to crime and violence throughout her childhood. Despite that, she appears to have become an intelligent adult and devoted mother. Her engagement with her children ought to make her imprisonment especially difficult, he acknowledged.

But he also referred to her violent criminal history, including an assault on a child when she was 19 in which she attacked a younger teen who had made a disparaging remark about her T-shirt. It shows a history of overreacting to alleged slights, he said, adding that in the current case, Ngaronoa’s comments should have been discreetly investigated and calmly addressed with the help of family rather than with aggressive, misplaced vigilante justice.

Family members shouted support as both defendants were escorted out of the courtroom in back-to-back hearings. As he did throughout the trial, Hemopo flashed one more Mongrel Mob hand gesture as he was led away.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.