'Teach the world a lesson': Gang trio guilty of killing rival's grandfather

After five years and three trials, three South Auckland-based Crips gang members have been convicted of killing a 75-year-old rugby league stalwart with a single shotgun blast outside his home.

Jurors in the High Court at Auckland spent five hours deliberating earlier this month before finding gunman Ethan “Crave” Jessop, 26, guilty of murdering retired coach Peter Rasmussen.

The same panel found co-defendant Daziea Leslie “Aggro” Huia, 23, guilty of manslaughter instead of murder.

Jessop – wearing a bright blue polo shirt that matched Huia’s T-shirt – flashed a gang sign as he was escorted from the dock to return to prison and await sentencing in November.

Lasalosi Vaitohi, the 34-year-old leader of the 23 Blue Cartel – a local offshoot of the Los Angeles-based Crips – had joined his mates in the dock at trials in 2023 and last year, accused of orchestrating the misdirected revenge plot.

However, he secretly – without alerting his co-defendants – insisted on pleading guilty to murder in May.

“This is my f***ing court,” Vaitohi, whose street name is “The Don”, yelled at a judge earlier this year when he indicated he wanted to immediately change his plea to guilty.

The judge declined the request, urging him to consult with a standby lawyer.

“I should have a right to plead or not plead,” Vaitohi continued.

“I have my rights.”

The judge for that hearing ordered that Vaitohi’s audio-video feed from prison be severed as the defendant hurled abuse. Vaitohi was allowed to change the plea to guilty one month later.

But his arraignment, along with his July sentencing to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 17 years, had been suppressed by the court to protect his co-defendants’ fair trial rights.

That suppression lapsed today, two weeks after his co-defendants’ trial ended.

‘Obvious risk’

Rasmussen bled to death in his Ōtāhuhu home’s kitchen on August 22, 2021, days after New Zealand had returned to a strict Covid-19 lockdown.

Prosecutors alleged the trio was trying to target his grandson Zahrn Rasmussen – a Killer Beez member known as “Obey” – who was suspected of robbing a Crips-controlled drug house days earlier.

Zahrn was living with his grandfather on electronically monitored community detention but was out when the shooting occurred.

Peter Rasmussen was killed at his Otahuhu home on August 22, 2021.

Of the three defendants, only Jessop was accused of going to Rasmussen’s home. He admitted as much, pleading guilty to manslaughter but insisting he didn’t have murderous intent when he shot Rasmussen in the lower leg.

Vaitohi was in custody at Auckland South Correctional Facility for another matter at the time of the shooting, giving directions via recorded prison calls. Huia had discussed going to the house and getting a gun, but he was ultimately tasked with finding a car for Jessop, prosecutors said.

It is believed Jessop opened fire from six to 10m away with a shotgun nicknamed Big Bad Beth, when the elder Rasmussen tried to shoo him away from the home.

The victim crawled inside but succumbed to the nearly 100 pellet wounds before he could call for help. Zahrn Rasmussen discovered the body several hours later.

Defence lawyer Emma Priest had argued that Jessop did not think that shooting someone below the knee could be fatal.

The Crown disagreed.

“The risks of shooting an elderly man are obvious to you, and you can be sure they were obvious to Mr Jessop as well,” prosecutor Gareth Kayes told jurors during the 2025 trial.

“Mr Jessop fired without quite knowing where he would hit Mr Rasmussen because he didn’t care about the consequences.

“He was clearly reckless about where he might hit him, and he consciously ran the risk he might kill him. He knew it and he did it anyway.”

Ethan Jessop appears in the High Court at Auckland in August 2023 during his first of three murder trials concerning the 2021 shooting of 75-year-old Peter Rasmussen. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Prosecutors never alleged the trio had premeditated a scheme to kill the elder Rasmussen, but such a scenario wasn’t necessary to prove what the courts call “reckless murder”.

The priority, Kayes alleged, was to confront and shoot the rival gang member. But if that wasn’t possible, he said, the group intended to “frighten and intimidate” by firing shots into the home regardless of who might be inside.

“Each of the defendants knew that someone being killed was a probable consequence of their plan,” he said.

‘Test out our soldiers’

A series of incriminating calls in the days leading up to the killing were played for juries during the trio’s trials and referred to in the previously suppressed summary of facts that Vaitohi agreed to.

The gang leader knew prison calls were recorded so he never explicitly used the words “kill” or “shoot”, but his coded directions were far from sophisticated, the Crown suggested.

“The thing why we have to do this, so everyone knows that our gang ain’t to be f***ed with,” Vaitohi told Jessop three days before the fatal shooting.

“Sends a message, like you know, f***, our team is f***ing, siana [man] we’re the team now.”

Police issued this photo of Lasalosi Vaitohi in 2013. Media outlets were not allowed to photograph him at his trials.

On a follow-up call six hours later, he continued: “That’s our style, cuz. We’ll just pull up, do the damn thing – no little chit-chat. F***, just do the damn thing”.

On a call with another associate, Vaitohi was warned Obey’s grandfather lived at the same address.

“I don’t care,” Vaitohi responded. “I don’t give a f***.”

He suggested to the associate that he’d order “the boys” to wait outside the house for the younger Rasmussen to emerge then “just thing him right there”.

“It gives us a chance to test out our soldiers,” he explained. “At the same time as teaching the world a lesson.”

In a call with Huia, Vaitohi discussed him going to the Rasmussen home and asked if he had a taahine – Tongan for “girl” but, according to the Crown, also frequently used slang for a gun.

“You drive over there and get the taahine to the cuz,” Vaitohi said. “Tell him to thing him.”

Huia responded: “What, thing the house up?”.

“Yeah,” Vaitohi said. “Thing it right up, aye.”

Daziea Leslie Huia appears in the High Court at Auckland in 2023, as his first of three murder trials began. Photo / Jason Oxenham

In a call with another gang associate, Vaitohi was recorded trying to source a gun.

“It’s only going to come out for a 187,” the associate told Vaitohi — allegedly a reference to section 187 of the California penal code, which defines the charge of murder.

Vaitohi replied: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell him yeah, we need this one”.

At last year’s trial, which ended with a hung jury, Jessop’s lawyer dismissed the calls as “vague chat” rather than a “focused, sinister plan”.

Prosecutors had cherry-picked words over hours of conversations to make it sound worse than it was, she suggested.

Priest also argued that prosecutors had misinterpreted “187” to mean murder, even if that is how it is used in California gang culture.

“New Zealand is a long way from the United States,” she said. “We live life a lot differently to the United States.”

Priest said it would be safer to assume, based on Vaitohi’s own explanation in another recorded call, that the term referred only to “ruthless gang” – “r” being the 18th letter of the alphabet and “g” being the 7th.

‘Public needs to be protected’

At his sentencing hearing in July, Vaitohi showed up with a 23-page handwritten letter outlining voluminous ongoing complaints about his incarceration. He then chose to return to his cell, skipping the hearing.

It was reminiscent of his 2025 trial, which he declined to attend most days even though he had technically fired his lawyer and was supposed to be representing himself.

The judge at that trial assigned the fired lawyer to stay in court, acting in Vaitohi’s interests as standby counsel.

A new standby lawyer, Sam Wimsett, KC, was assigned for his sentencing.

Murder usually carries a mandatory life sentence with a minimum term of at least 10 years. Prosecutors argued the “calculated and lengthy planning” the shooting plot entailed meant Vaitohi should face a 17-year minimum.

An armed officer guards the scene outside the Otahuhu, Auckland home where Peter Rasmussen was killed in August 2021. Photo / Michael Craig

Justice Tracey Walker said she was “easily satisfied” that Vaitohi’s actions qualified for the 17-year minimum, describing his directions from prison as “calculated and callous”.

“Although Mr Vaitohi’s planning was unsophisticated, he planned the murder of Mr Rasmussen’s grandson over five days,” the judge noted in sentencing notes released to the Herald.

“The exchange of messages between Mr Vaitohi and others while in custody is chilling.

“He was unfazed by the fact that others, including the elderly victim, lived at the same property. He simply did not care.

“All he seemed to care about was the perceived loss of face and stamping his authority by making it clear that no one can cross his gang without deadly consequence.”

The defence lawyer asked the judge to declare the 17-year minimum “manifestly unjust”, noting Vaitohi’s difficult childhood and the fact he had spent the 18 months before sentencing in the controversial Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit in Paremoremo.

The nation’s highest security unit, described as a prison within a prison and known to hold gang leaders and the Christchurch terrorist, received harsh criticism in a 2024 Chief Ombudsman’s report. Serving time there involves extra hardship, Wimsett argued.

But judges in past cases have declined similar requests related to the unit, and so did Justice Walker.

“It cannot be known whether there is any likelihood of his classification being changed to the extent he might be moved into the maximum-security unit rather than in PERU,” she explained.

Justice Tracey Walker. Photo / NZME

She also noted Vaitohi’s “extensive” criminal history, including a sentence he was already serving for a violent prison attack while awaiting retrial.

“Mr Vaitohi has offended every year from 2006 to 2018, receiving a sentence of imprisonment in 2018 for aggravated robbery, among other offences,” she noted. “He has more than 60 convictions in his history.

“The picture presented is consistent and very troubling. In short, the public needs to be protected from Mr Vaitohi.”

‘Ōtāhuhu gentleman’

Peter Rasmussen, known as Ras, had been an Ōtāhuhu Rovers Rugby League Football Club life member.

He was a retired freezing worker known as a straight-talker and family man.

In an online tribute, the club said he was a “true Ōtāhuhu gentleman”.

He was involved in many facets of the club, including as a junior development officer and club committee member. He had coached all grades, including premier.

Local rugby league stalwart Peter Rasmussen was gunned down outside his Princes Street home in Otahuhu in August 2021. Photo / Michael Craig

“He still came down to support our Premiers and Premier First teams at home games and was often found after the game chatting with the players about their performance,” the club noted on social media.

“Ras – you were loved by many and will be missed by all.”

The reason for the delay in justice still cannot be fully reported.

Justice David Johnstone, who oversaw the first two trials, issued an interim suppression order in 2023 regarding the extremely unusual reason the first trial had to be aborted.

The order, opposed by the Herald and Stuff, remains in place. Both media outlets, however, have filed updated requests this month asking for suppression to be lifted.

Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith, who oversaw the final trial, is expected to issue a decision later.

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.