gang<\/a> because he had arrived at an address wearing the hoodie and trying to get drugs.<\/p>\nGabriel contacted Makoare, who began making his own inquiries as to how Curle had got the hoodie.<\/p>\n
During the evening of November 5, the pair were in a telephone conversation with \u201cSamdog\u201d, then discovered to be Curle, who was told to return the sweatshirt to the owner.<\/p>\n
Makoare sent a text message to that person, telling him that the hoodie was going to be returned to his address and that, when it was, he should \u201cgrab\u201d the person who returned it.<\/p>\n
About 10.30pm, Makoare received information about where \u201cSamdog\u201d could be found and told Gabriel, who then asked Makoare to go with him to pick up or retrieve the hoodie. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou both also wanted to find out how \u2018Samdog\u2019 had come into possession of it,\u201d Justice Lang said.<\/p>\n
A short time later, they travelled in two vehicles to the address where they believed \u201cSamdog\u201d was staying, accompanied by the three others, who were later discharged.<\/p>\n
When they arrived, all five went to the front door and one asked the female occupant for \u201cSam\u201d to come to the door. <\/p>\n
Curle came to the door and was immediately punched in the face by Gabriel.<\/p>\n
Curle was left sitting upright on the floor. Gabriel then \u201cforcefully kicked\u201d him, which knocked him flat on his back.<\/p>\n
At that point, Makoare joined an attack that lasted about 20 seconds until one of the five intervened and told them both to stop. <\/p>\n
Justice Lang said the group was at the address only a matter of minutes before they left to return to their respective homes.<\/p>\n
Unconscious and making \u2018snoring\u2019 noises<\/p>\n
Curle suffered serious head injuries in the attack. Others at the address enlisted help to get him medical assistance, but he died later in hospital, Justice Lang said.<\/p>\n
Makoare said in evidence that he never gave any thought to whether his actions could lead to Curle\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou acknowledged that Mr Curle was unconscious and making snoring noises when the attack ended,\u201d the judge said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, you said that you believed that he would wake up feeling a bit groggy and would then be fine.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The pair were each sentenced to more than six years in prison when they appeared in the High Court at Auckland. Photo \/ Jason Oxenham<\/p>\n
Makoare had denied being party to any plan to commit serious violence on Curle. <\/p>\n
Instead, he claimed to have gone to the address to retrieve the sweatshirt and talk to \u201cSamdog\u201d about where he had got it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is noteworthy, however, that you conceded in cross-examination that you intended to beat him \u2018maybe a little bit, but not seriously harm him\u2019,\u201d Justice Lang said.<\/p>\n
History of violence<\/p>\n
In establishing a sentencing outcome, the judge said each defendant had \u201creasonably extensive\u201d criminal records, which included convictions for violence. <\/p>\n
Much of it related to family violence and was not gang-related.<\/p>\n
At the time of the attack on Curle, Makoare was still on a sentence of intensive supervision for offending that included common assault.<\/p>\n
The pair had offered to plead guilty to a charge of manslaughter, but the matter went to trial when the Crown did not accept the offers.<\/p>\n
Justice Lang said the circumstances of the offending meant that it was appropriate for a jury, and not the Crown, to determine where their culpability lay.<\/p>\n
However, they were entitled to credit for accepting responsibility for the type of offending for which they were ultimately convicted. <\/p>\n
Justice Lang accepted that each was genuinely remorseful for their offending. <\/p>\n
He said in sentencing Gabriel to six years and three months\u2019 imprisonment that his offending was driven largely by his \u201cstaunch support\u201d for the Head Hunters gang.<\/p>\n
Makoare, also a long-term committed patched member, was sentenced to six years and six months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government, for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Gabriel during an earlier appearance in the High Court at Auckland, charged with the murder of Samuel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17704,1596,114036,6659,47753,2082,106,42,114037,29155,104,101,4754,43,90,1523,55536,5161,5976,114038,1361,40,38,41,39,20881,113667,20424,49370,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-178381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-assault","9":"tag-brain","10":"tag-curle","11":"tag-deadly","12":"tag-extremely","13":"tag-for","14":"tag-head","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-hoodie","17":"tag-hunters","18":"tag-injuries","19":"tag-left","20":"tag-members","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-on","23":"tag-over","24":"tag-samuel","25":"tag-sentenced","26":"tag-short","27":"tag-sweatshirt","28":"tag-that","29":"tag-top-news","30":"tag-top-stories","31":"tag-topnews","32":"tag-topstories","33":"tag-triggered","34":"tag-unsurvivable","35":"tag-violent","36":"tag-wearing","37":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}