'Like Grand Theft Auto': Witnesses recall car chaos before gang boss' death

“They looked like they were playing bumper cars.”

Raiden Welsh was at his Ōpōtiki home, cleaning for a house inspection the next day, when he heard cars revving in the distance and went out to “see what was happening”.

Welsh was questioned about what he saw that night as part of the High Court trial into the death of Mongrel Mob Barbarians president Steven Taiatini, who was fatally struck by a car in June 2023.

The Crown case is that Black Power member Richard Collins was driving the car that ran over Taiatini, with co-defendant Esther Corlett also in the vehicle; both have pleaded not guilty to murder.

The Crown said the incident was the culmination of increasing gang tensions, with cars from Black Power and the Mongrel Mob Barbarians converging on St John St, Ōpōtiki, late on June 9, 2023.

Welsh said it was about 11pm when he crossed a nearby playing field, filming the scene as he approached.

He said he could see “heaps of cars driving in a panic”, and described them as “bumper cars” to Crown prosecutor Richard Jenson during questioning.

Welsh said he could see “two or three” cars crashing into each other and described “four or five” people standing outside the cars.

He said as he stood watching from the fenceline, he could see people trying to get into cars to leave.

He saw a blue Holden Commodore leaving as he got to the fence and described a white ute stuck on top of a tree stump.

He also said he saw Corlett standing on the road and heard her yelling at someone “to leave it”.

Welsh also described seeing a silver ute, which could have been a Holden Colorado or Rodeo, doing “rarkies” on a grass verge, looking as though it was “trying to leave”.

During his evidence, he said he couldn’t see who was driving, but later, after having his memory refreshed with a statement he made to police at the time, told Jenson he had recognised “Richiemon” – a nickname for Richard Collins.

He also confirmed he’d told police he saw Corlett was a passenger in the Holden.

He described seeing the car turn around on St John St, driving on to the grass verge, reversing, then going forwards, appearing to get stuck at one point.

At this point, he said he’d had an “ugly gut feeling that something bad had happened”.

Jenson asked if Welsh had heard anything being said by anyone there.

“Yep... I could hear Esther screaming, ‘That’s what you get’.”

Welsh was cross-examined by Corlett’s lawyer Nicholas Dutch, who pointed out Welsh had told police soon after the incident that he didn’t know who had said that.

Dutch put to him that he was now “filling in gaps”.

In one statement, he told police he’d heard someone say, “F*** this is what happens eh, Tiwana”. The court has heard that “Tiwana” was a name Taiatini went by.

But at the time of the statement, Welsh told police he hadn’t known who said that.

Dutch suggested he hadn’t known what Corlett’s voice sounded like and was instead making “assumptions” based on information he’d since heard.

But Welsh didn’t accept that and said he knew then it was Corlett.

Under re-examination by Jenson, Welsh said he hadn’t told police it was Corlett who’d said that because it was “still fresh”.

“I dunno, that whole scenario, messed me up quite bad,” he said.

Jenson asked if there was something about the “particular detail” that had prompted Welsh to leave it out.

Welsh said no.

Witness said it sounded like ‘something from Grand Theft Auto’

After the cars left, Welsh and his partner, Chalsy Paget, drove back to the scene and saw the abandoned ute on the tree stump.

Welsh said they’d gone to have a closer look, but Paget said they’d gone to look for Taiatini, whom they knew to be missing.

She had stayed further back from the incident as it unfolded, but said the ramming cars “sounded like something from Grand Theft Auto”.

When Welsh and Paget went to take a closer look at the abandoned scene, neither said they spotted Taiatini on the grass verge; they’d stopped by the stranded ute.

Paget said they wanted to make sure no one was stuck “in or under the vehicle” and only stayed for “30 seconds” or so before driving off.

Taiatini’s widow, Pauline, also gave evidence.

She told the jury her husband had returned home from work, went to the gym, then had dinner and got ready for bed.

But during the evening, he’d got a phone call.

Steven Taiatini was fatally struck by a vehicle in Ōpōtiki in June 2023. Photo / NZME

Pauline Taiatini said she heard him say, “Who the f*** had the f***ing machete?”

He got changed and said, “won’t be long”, and that he was going to “go and sort this mess”.

Pauline Taiatini said this wasn’t unusual as her husband had been a “fixer upper” in his role as “cap”, short for captain, for the Mongrel Mob Barbarians, who had been there for his “boys”.

“He would go and find a solution, and so that’s automatically what I thought, [that] he’s gone to go and sort it out. See how it can be resolved without violence.”

Later, Pauline Taiatini became aware of a commotion and went with a neighbour to see what was happening.

She became emotional as she described arriving at the scene and recognising her husband’s clothing.

She was let through the cordon and was able to go to where her husband lay.

Under cross-examination, she told Dutch her husband wasn’t speaking.

She said she touched him and said a karakia.

Constable Ceihla Morris, an Ōpōtiki police officer who attended the scene, described going to where Taiatini lay when he was still awake.

She said he couldn’t tell her much as she tried to keep him talking.

She’d asked him, “Who did this?” and “What happened?” but he said he didn’t know.

He said he was sore, needed help and thought he was going to die.

Morris tried to reassure him that help was on the way and encourage him to stay awake.

As they waited for an ambulance from Kawerau, Taiatini’s “eyes rolled back” and he became unresponsive.

Taiatini died at the scene.

The trial in the High Court at Rotorua, before Justice Andrew Becroft, continues.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.