Gunman David Main jailed again – this time for shooting at South Auckland hotel

Mane arrived at the Great South Rd Hotel at around 5.40pm on May 22 this year and 50 minutes later the victim’s girlfriend knocked on the door in an attempt to lure him out. The ruse worked, and Mane approached him with a long-barreled weapon hidden under his clothes.

“After a brief verbal altercation, the defendant pointed the weapon at the applicant and struck him in the face with the barrel,” court documents state. “The applicant pulled the firearm away from his face and fought off the defendant by punching him in the face.

“When the defendant took a few steps back and raised the gun again, the appellant returned to his room and went inside, closing the door.”

It was then that Manet decided to fire his pistol into the center of the door, at about waist height.

“He then kicked the door several times and fired another shot at the handle, damaging it,” the documents state. “Unable to get into the complainant’s room, the defendant left.”

Investigators found the gun the next day in the garden of a neighboring house, just behind the fence, police said.

Manet later pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm with reckless disregard for the safety of another, which is punishable by up to seven years in prison.

“Mr Main did not go to that address to look for this person and shoot him,” barrister Claire Robertson said this week, admitting her client had the foresight to arm himself but insisting it was not “premeditated revenge”. ” type of situation.

“He seems genuinely remorseful about it,” she added. “He showed a real understanding of his crime.”

But the judge noted that this is not the first time the defendant has expressed remorse after shooting someone.

In September 2021, Mane was sentenced by the High Court in Whangarei to three years in prison for the crime, which included a shooting a year earlier, followed by a week-long manhunt.

He admitted having a stolen pump-action shotgun in June 2020 when, aged 19, he confronted her in Merew, Northland, after which the man put his hands up and backed away. Police found a gun at Mane’s home later that day and attempted to pull over his car.

“You asked what the arrest was for and you backed up and drove off,” Judge Michael Robinson noted at a preliminary sentencing hearing. “The police chased you. You drove along the railway tracks. You then abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot. The police didn’t find you.”

A week later, Mane had another gunfight with another man whose motorcycle had just been stolen. A man appeared around 7:20 in the morning at the house where Mane was sleeping, suspecting that Mane’s partner had taken over it. As the man tried to leave with his property, Manet hit him in the back of the head with another pump-action shotgun.

The victim and his accomplices retreated. He was about six meters away when Manet opened fire.

“Several bullets entered Mr. A’s legs and his abdominal muscles,” court documents state. “He fell to the ground. With help, he got into a car and was taken to the Bay of Islands Hospital.”

Given the claim of remorse for the previous shooting, Judge Moses said this week that a 5% discount for remorse this time would be generous.

Mane’s lawyer acknowledged his failure with the new charge, but noted her client’s difficult childhood, which included contact with gangs and domestic violence.

“Unfortunately, with what he’s got, it’s not going to happen right away,” she said of his rehabilitation. “This is not a case where all hope is lost.”

The judge agreed.

There was no doubt, he said, that the defendant’s childhood “played a part in why you appeared in court so regularly over a number of years.”

He allowed additional discounts of 10% for Dane’s past and 25% for his guilty plea.

“You are still a young man,” Judge Moses told him. “You’ve indicated that you want to change… and I’m sure you can do it. There will be people who will help you, I believe that you will make the most of the opportunities given to you.”

He rejected the Crown’s request for a minimum sentence, leaving it to the Parole Board to decide when it would be best to release Dane next.

Craig the Captain is an Auckland-based journalist who covers courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three editions in the US and New Zealand.

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