The killing of Wanganui toddler Jhia Te Tua was the culmination of gang tension between Black Power and Mongrel Mob members, which had been building through the day, the High Court at Wellington was told today.
Hayden John Wallace, 27, Karl Unuka Check, 26, Ranji Tane Forbes, 21, Godfrey Thomas Muraahi, 27, Erueti Chase Nahona, 20, and Richard Anthony Puohotaua, 28, are charged with the two-year-old's murder.
Luke John Check, 24, is charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact.
Forbes, Muraahi, Nahona, Puohotaua and Wallace are also facing a charge of being part of an organised criminal group.
Karl Check, Muraahi, Nahona and Wallace also face an assault charge.
The men pleaded not guilty to all charges in front of a jury of six men and six women today.
Grant Burston, appearing for the Crown, said in his opening speech that Jhia was killed during a drive-by shooting.
He alleged she was hit by a bullet, fired by Wallace from a high-powered rifle, while she lay asleep on a couch in the lounge at her home in the suburb of Gonville, just before 10pm on May 5, 2007.
Mr Burston said the shooting came after a day of gang tensions between the Black Power, of which Jhia's father was a member, and their rival gang the Mongrel Mob.
"It was a revenge attack," Mr Burston said.
All the accused were either patched Mob members, prospects wanting to be patched members or supporters of the gang, he said.
Jhia's mother had been afraid of gang members arriving at their home, and in an attempt to keep her daughter safe, took her out of her bedroom and rearranged the furniture into a make-shift bed.
"Sadly it did not keep her safe," Mr Burston said.
Tensions between the two gangs began at a rugby league game on the afternoon of May 5.
They continued later that evening at the house of a Black Power member, on Akatea Street, who was allegedly attacked by members of the Mob, which resulted in the assault charge.
Later that evening, in the street in which Jhia and her family lived, Mongrel Mob cars were targeted by the Black Power with bricks, stones and pieces of wood.
Mr Burston said in an act of revenge, three cars containing Mob members returned to the street, turned their lights and engines off while approaching, and fired three shots into the Te Tua's house, hitting and killing Jhia.
"The accused were all present and knew what was going to happen and were in the cars when the shooting took place."
The alleged shooter, Wallace, then celebrated by firing shots out of the window and into the air, Mr Burston said.
He said the shooting was an attempt for Wallace to become a patched member of the gang and save face in front of another senior member, Karl Check, when he hadn't become involved in a fight earlier in the evening.
The trial was expected to last about five weeks.
