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Menzies
HALLETT
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Because the victim
had closed up the service station and would not serve him
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
August 16, 1979
Date of arrest:
January 2012 (32 years after)
Date of birth: 1941
Victim profile:
Rodney Tahu, 32 (service
station worker)
Method of murder:
Shooting
(.22
revolver)
Location: Turangi, Waikato Region, North
Island, New Zealand
Status:
Sentenced to life in prison on July 12, 2013
Menzies Hallett sentenced to life for cold case
murder
NZHerald.co.nz
July 12, 2013
Relatives of a Turangi service station worker
gunned down 34 years ago say justice has finally been done after his
murderer was sentenced to life in prison.
Menzies Hallett is likely to die in jail, the High
Court at Rotorua heard today, as Justice Ailsa Duffy sentenced the
72-year-old to life in prison for the 1979 murder of Rodney Tahu.
It is believed to be New Zealand's oldest cold case
to result in arrest.
Outside court, Tahu family spokesman Colin Hair,
who is married to Mr Tahu's widow, said at last the family would be
able to put the case behind them.
"I think justice has finally been done,'' he said.
"We will wake up tomorrow and start again.''
Mr Hair was asked what the Tahu family would do now
the case was over.
''[We will] take a breather and think about
things,'' he said. ``Justice is something that needs to be done, I'm
not sure it needs to be celebrated.''
His wife was not present at the sentencing, but Mr
Hair confirmed she was ``nearby'' and had been told of the sentence.
A minimum non-parole term was not imposed, as in
1979 a court was unable to do so. However Justice Duffy said in
effect, he would not become eligible for parole until he had served 10
years.
Justice Duffy told Hallett he had showed "little or
no remorse"for the "cruel, senseless"murder. She said that attitude had continued throughout the
process, with him refusing to discuss his offending with the
pre-sentence report writer.
During sentencing one of Tahu's sisters read a
victim impact statement on behalf of his siblings.
She said the family had lived for 33 years with the
"horror"of the brutal way in which their beloved and respected
husband, father and brother had died and with knowing the man who did
it had walked free for 33 years.
"We will never be the same again. The accused [Hallett]
changed that for ever. "
Rotorua crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch told the
judge the murder had been particularly cruel.
"It was nothing short of an execution of the
deceased."
Hallett's lawyer, Paul Mabey QC, told the judge his
client had health issues and the reality was he would "die in prison".
Mr Mabey argued a life sentence would be
"manifestly unjust" because of the time taken for the prosecution to
bring the case and Hallett's personal circumstances.
He referred to Hallett's contribution to the
community as a businessman both before and after the murder.
"If we take the 72 years, the single serious
blemish was what happened in 1979."
Justice Duffy said that could not reduce the
gravity of what he had done, although she acknowledged imprisonment
now was likely to have a harsher effect on Hallett than if he had been
jailed as a younger man.
During the trial the jury heard how Hallett pulled
into the closed Shell service station in the early hours of August 16,
1979 wanting oil for his car. Mr Tahu refused to re-open so Hallett
called him a "black b******" then shot three times - the first shot
missed, the second one hit Mr Tahu in the shoulder. Hallett then stood
over the 32-year-old father-of-two and shot him through the head.
Hallett confessed to his estranged wife hours after
the killing and was charged with murder. However the law of the time
prevented people giving evidence against their spouse so he never
stood trial.
After the law changed in 2006, the case was
re-opened and Hallett was again charged, with his ex-wife the main
Crown witness.
Man sentenced over 30-year-old murder
By Aaron Leaman - Stuff.co.nz
July 12, 2013
The family of murdered service station worker
Rodney Tahu say there will be no celebration tonight after his killer
was jailed.
Whanau and friends of Tahu gathered at the High
Court in Rotorua this morning as Menzies Hallett was sentenced to life
imprisonment for the unprovoked killing.
Justice Ailsa Duffy did not impose a minimum
non-parole period, but Hallett will have to serve 10 years before
being eligible for parole with the court hearing that due to ill
health Hallett could die in prison.
Hallett, 72, was earlier found guilty of murdering
Tahu outside a Turangi service station on August 16, 1979.
Speaking outside court Tahu family spokesman Colin
Hair said there were no winners and losers from the case and there
would be no celebration for the family.
"It's been a grueling 18 months [since Hallett's
arrest] and a gruelling 30 years [since the murder]."
Hair said he had taken over raising Tahu's children
and shared their grief for decades.
Gordon Clout, a friend of Hallett, said he would
continue to support his friend and wife Joan.
He said he did not know what the Maori word for
forgiveness was, but hoped Tahu's family could find it for his friend.
During his High Court trial, Hallett admitted
shooting Tahu at close range but said he hadn't intended to kill him.
He retracted that admission before the trial ended.
In today's sentencing Justice Duffy said Hallett's
offending had been "cowardly and callous" as had his actions in
covering up the crime for three decades.
Speaking earlier, Hair said the family would be be
sceptical of any expressions of remorse by Hallett.
"It's of no consequences to us whether he does or
doesn't show remorse because the reality is he's had ample opportunity
to do so and hasn't," Hair said.
"Now that he has been caught and convicted it's all
very well and good to make an expression of remorse but one would have
to question the sincerity of that under the circumstances.
"What makes this case so different is the passage
of time; it's been 30-odd years to get to this point."
Hallett shot petrol attendant Tahu with a .22
revolver on the night of August 16, 1979, because Tahu had closed up
the service station and would not serve him.
Hallett called Tahu a "black bastard" and fired
three shots at him.
One hit Tahu in the shoulder and a second missed.
Hallett then fired a final fatal shot at Tahu's
head from close range.
Hallett trial: No evidence for provocation
defence
By Heather McCracken - NZHerald.co.nz
May 15, 2013
Convicted killer Menzies Hallett was refused the
defence of provocation because no ordinary New Zealander faced with
the same circumstances would have shot Rodney Tahu, a judge found.
Judge Duffy found there was no evidence for a
partial defence of provocation, so it was not put to the jury during
Hallett's trail in the High Court in Rotorua in April.
The reasons for the finding were released by the
High Court yesterday.
Hallett was found guilty of shooting service
station worker Mr Tahu in 1979 after he refused to re-open the service
station to allow Hallett to buy oil.
Hallett had been drinking and was angry about a
dispute with his former wife when he arrived at the service station in
Turangi.
When Mr Tahu refused to re-open, Hallett called him
a "black bastard". When Mr Tahu stepped towards him, Hallett shot him
in the shoulder and then in the head while Mr Tahu was lying on the
ground.
Judge Duffy said to use a defence of provocation it
would need to be considered whether Mr Tahu's actions or words were
enough to deprive an ordinary person the power of self-control to the
point where he or she would have shot at him.
"I found it impossible to imagine any ordinary New
Zealander who was met with the circumstances confronting Mr Hallett,
acting in the way that the Crown's evidence portrayed," Judge Duffy's
decision said.
"In my view, faced with the conduct of Mr Tahu that
night, no ordinary New Zealander would resort to firing shots in the
vicinity of Mr Tahu, let alone at him."
The defence of provocation was repealed in December
2009, but was available to Hallett as it was still in place when the
crime took place in 1979.
Also released today was Judge Duffy's reasons for
allowing Hallett's former wife's evidence to be heard.
Hallett had confessed to his wife after the
shooting, but in 1979 the law prevented her from giving evidence
against him. The Evidence Act 2006 removed this prohibition, after
which the police laid a fresh charge against Hallett.
During the trail last month, Hallett objected to
the evidence on the grounds the 2006 Act did not apply at the time of
the confession.
This was rejected on the basis the 2006 Act was a
change in procedure, rather than a removal of any substantive right Mr
Hallett may have previously held.
Hallett then made a fresh objection that his former
wife's evidence was inadmissible as a confidential communication,
which was also rejected.
Hallett will be sentenced on July 12.
The lives and times of a cold case killer
Menzies Hallett's friends thought they knew him -
until his murderous past came spilling out in court
By Jamie Morton - NZHerald.co.nz
May 4, 2013
Yachtsman, musician, insurance agent, husband,
father - and convicted murderer.
Friends and former associates of Menzies Hallett
have told the Weekend Herald of a confident extrovert whose
happy-go-lucky nature appeared to have concealed a dark past for more
than three decades.
They could only watch in disbelief when it all came
spilling out in the High Court at Rotorua over the past two weeks -
the rage, the gun, the murder, the shock confession police couldn't
use.
How could their old mate, now 72, be the same man
who stood in the dock expressionless as a jury found him guilty of
shooting dead an innocent family man at a service station nearly 34
years ago?
"Over the past few days I've been trying to get my
head around the evidence presented at the trial, as the Menzies
Hallett I know would not do such a brutal act to an innocent man,"
Gordon Clout said of his long-time friend.
But the whanau of Rodney Tahu, who held a private
ceremony at their murdered loved one's gravesite on Thursday, know a
different Menzies Hallett.
Menzies Reginald John Hallett came from a respected
family - its name was given to Halletts Bay, on the eastern shore of
Lake Taupo.
Taupo Mayor Rick Cooper described Hallett as having
been "well bred" and his parents, Walter "Reg" and Effie Hallett, were
well liked in the community.
Hallett married his first wife, Susan, in the
mid-1960s and they raised two daughters in Palmerston North, Hallett
working in his father's sporting goods store, before they all moved to
Taupo.
A keen sailor, Hallett was well known at the local
yacht club and throughout business circles of the sleepy lakeside
town.
After their marriage broke up in the late 1970s,
Susan shifted to Wellington and Hallett stayed in Taupo, working as a
real estate agent and living at a bach at the back of his parents'
house.
He had been excited about having both daughters
come to live with him and his new partner Margaret Murray at a home he
was renovating across town.
Hallett was preparing to head down to Palmerston
North to pick up one of his daughters and some furniture when he got a
letter from Susan, denying him custody.
Margaret said her partner was "not his usual happy
self" after reading it, her "positive" and "full-of-life" man suddenly
becoming worryingly depressed.
Angry and emotional, Hallett drove south to ask his
daughter herself where she wanted to live, but fate and a rattle from
his Ford Falcon 500 sent him to Turangi's Shell station, where
nightshift worker Rodney Tahu was closing up just after 1am on August
16, 1979.
Mr Tahu couldn't help him and Hallett hit "flash
point" - drawing his prized .22 revolver and shooting him once in the
shoulder, then in the head at close range.
Susan Sharpe, who declined to talk to this
newspaper, listened to her estranged husband confess this to her a few
hours later, before he left her Wellington apartment and she alerted
the police.
Rex Hawkins vaguely knew Hallett - but well enough
to tell he and fellow detective Doug Scott were dealing with a much
different person when he refused to come out of his car in an
early-morning armed stand-off on a rural road off the Napier-Taupo
Road.
Hallett wounded himself with a surprise blast from
his shotgun - and Mr Hawkins still isn't sure whether he had tried to
aim at police or to turn the gun on himself.
Hallett's boss at the time, Phil Gardner, earlier
told the Weekend Herald of his shock when he discovered what his
well-spoken colleague at his real estate agency had been involved in.
"It was strange, especially when I got a call pretty early in the
morning to put some clothes on and come up to the hospital."
When Hallett walked free over a lack of evidence
because the law prevented his wife's damning testimony from reaching
the court, he moved out of town - but not far.
Leaving one outraged community behind, Menzies
Hallett adopted another. He became John Hallett of Rotorua, and got
involved in life insurance.
Mr Clout, a Taupo accountant, had known him through
their daughters and agreed to handle his books in the early 1980s.
He said Hallett remained fun, jovial and positive,
but he suspected things weren't so bright underneath.
"Hallett has probably suffered in his own internal
prison with a guilty conscience every day for the past 34 years."
Warwick Nunns met Hallett in the mid-1980s when he
moved in with him, and believed it was on a fishing trip to Lake
Waikaremoana that his friend eventually revealed his black past.
"It just came from totally out of the blue. He
started off very matter-of-fact about it and he went through the tale
and the narration continued and I could see he was very emotional
about it.
"It appeared to me that he wanted to share it with
me for some reason so I gave him credit for telling me for the right
reasons ... Obviously there was regret there. I think he was very
regretful."
The pair bonded - Hallett would eventually become
one of the groomsmen at his wedding and Mr Nunns attended both the
funerals of Hallett's parents - and found they shared outdoor
interests, including going to boat shows and fishing.
"When John told me what he had done I really did
see it as a total aberration. It was very hard to believe that this
had happened but then of course I knew the John Hallett a few years
after the event - I didn't know the person he was back then."
Hallett was hardworking, often coming home for
dinner then returning to his office in central Rotorua where he wrote
insurance policies.
He also carried on his love of sailing, and served
as commodore of a Lake Rotoiti-based yacht squadron, sailing a Noelex.
David Jacks, a former Rotorua school principal,
knew Hallett as a keen drummer who attended regional music camps and
informal concerts.
"I'm sure there were rumours, but I couldn't accept
them - he was there, he was a musician and he was a nice guy ... and
we had no problems as far as we were concerned."
But Mr Nunns said that knowing his good friend had
committed this crime had challenged him over the years.
"But I was never scared or worried about him. I
could see that this wasn't in his nature as I knew him and I didn't
see anything to suggest there was violence in his nature."
Beverley Emmerson, who met Hallett through a
personal advertisement in the late 1980s, sensed the same. But her
initial view of Hallett as "credible" and extroverted sharply changed
when he again confided his past - and she walked away two months into
the relationship.
Hallett met his second wife, Shona, in the late
1980s when she shifted into the region.
She declined to be interviewed yesterday, but her
brother, Gary Watts, said there were some warning signs before the two
were married.
"My nephew, who was from Taupo, he told Shona
before they got married that he had a bit of a shady history, so they
must have had a fair idea."
Mr Watts recalled his one-time brother-in-law as an
enthusiastic photographer who had the latest gear and "always had
flash cars".
"He's quite an interesting character, and he really
sucked us in ... We thought he was a genuine guy."
Not long after divorcing in the early 1990s,
Hallett met his current wife, Joan, a British expat who had been a
theatre nurse.
It is not known whether Hallett told her about the
murder, and she refused to comment when approached at their brick unit
in Carnot St, Rotorua.
Mr Nunns said Hallett worked in other jobs, running
a screenprinting business, working as a Herald delivery agent and
later as a finance and mortgage broker, but never achieved the wealth
he sought.
He was receiving superannuation but still connected
with the real estate industry when time caught up with him.
Detectives approached him as he was buying a
corned-beef sandwich at a local bakery - a law change enabling Susan
Sharpe to testify triggering a year of case-building.
A neighbour told the Weekend Herald how he had
accidentally driven into her car, and her surprise when he told her of
his arrest while sorting out the insurance details.
Mr Nunns last spoke with Hallett this week in the
court cells, directly after he had given evidence at histrial.
Hallett apologised to him for putting him in that
position, he said.
"There was only one word that sprung to mind - and
that was just that he looked a little resigned."
Mr Jacks said he was taken aback when his friend's
face was suddenly splashed across the media.
"The whole thing in a way seemed out of character
... Menzies Hallett murdering someone? You just couldn't believe it."
But Colin Hair, who married Rodney Tahu's widow,
Hana, two years after the murder, wasn't so shocked.
He had always known what Hallett had done, and that
he was living nearby - but he chose to keep from Mr Tahu's sons the
identity of their father's killer.
"I think time went on and we just got on with our
lives ... but it never went away, it was always there in the
background, and from time to time it would raise its head," he said
yesterday.
"At the back of my mind, there was always the
thought that if they knew who this guy was, and what if they happened
to bump into him in the street, how would they react ... I was
conscious that the outcome of that might not be good for anybody."
And Mr Hair was not surprised Hallett had been able
to live with his secret for so long.
"It certainly wouldn't be part of my make-up to be
able to do that ... to just walk away and say, 'Ho hum, I don't care
about anyone else.'
"I think it's just indicative of the opinion that I
have formed over the last couple of weeks ... that Hallett has always
thought the world revolved around him."
Cold case verdict: 'We can all move on'
By James Ihaka - NZHerald.co.nz
May 1, 2013
There were emotional scenes outside the High Court
at Rotorua this afternoon as a family joined together and sang,
finally having received closure over the murder of a loved one nearly
34 years ago.
The family of Rodney Tahu were seen to cry and lean
on one another as Menzies Reginald John Hallett was found guilty of
his murder at a Turangi service station in 1979.
It came at the end of a week and a half long trial
that had heard how Hallett, now 72, had gunned Mr Tahu down in a
"flash point" of rage but had lived free for the last three decades.
Outside court, tearful whanau of Mr Tahu hugged
Detective Inspector Mark Loper, who led the cold case after it was
re-opened two and a half years ago.
Law changes meant Hallett's former wife could give
crucial evidence against him - without it, the original murder case
against him had faltered.
"I think let's for a moment go back to 1979... and
I think if you'd asked anybody then, you would've said he was a good
bloke, he was a man who worked hard, who was well respected in his
community," an emotional family spokesman Colin Hair said of Mr Tahu
following the verdict.
"He loved his family and his wife and his two
daughters.
"Nobody could have known on that particular night
when he went about his normal day to day business that somebody he'd
never met - a perfect stranger - would turn up with a loaded firearm
and would shoot him and the family were naturally devastated at that
point.. and were further devastated when an anomaly in the law at that
stage meant he walked free until now.. some 33, nearly 34 years ago.
"You have to understand that the events of the last
13 or 14 months since the arrest, the trial, the media coverage and
everything has re-opened those old wounds and to some extent has
rubbed them a little bit more over the last week or so but I think now
we are in a position where we can put some closure to this... and we
can all move on."
"I think the hardest part is we've always known who
was responsible for this, as I said, it was an anomaly in the law that
allowed it to go by, and I've got to say, on behalf of the whole
family, a huge thanks to the police for their tenacious work.. and not
just the work the current team have done, but the original outstanding
work that was done."
Mr Loper acknowledged how hard it had been for the
family.
"All files, especially homicide files, are reviewed
regularly, and this was one of those cases," he said.
"So you know, through time, people [who are
involved in such cases] might think that they may be free to reign and
have stopped looking over their shoulder, but this was a classic case
where sometimes the police will come and tap you on the shoulder."
Yesterday Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch said
during his closing submissions that the 72-year-old had retracted an
earlier admission that he had killed the father of two.
The stunning revelation came a day after three
separate witnesses - Hallett's ex-wife Susan Sharpe, a flatmate of his
from the mid-1980s and a woman he briefly dated later that decade -
all gave evidence stating that the former real estate agent and
musician admitted to them that he had killed Mr Tahu.
The defence called no witnesses nor did Hallett
give any testimony.
Mr Mabey said Hallet was innocent until proven
guilty, if the jury returned a verdict "based on fairness and
objectivity then no one can complain about that".
Earlier, the Crown prosecutor said it was Hallett's
right to change his mind. Mr Pilditch said things happened in trial
and things changed "and there's nothing particularly remarkable about
that".
He said there were just two issues for the jury to
consider - whether Hallett killed Mr Tahu, and if so, did he have
murderous intent.
The Crown said Hallett was in a belligerent mood
after receiving a letter from his wife.
The court heard how there was some dialogue that Hallett might get
custody of their children, but Ms Sharpe refused. His oldest daughter
also said she did not want to stay with him.
He arrived at the Turangi Shell service station
just after 1am after hearing a rattling noise in his car and demanded
some oil from Mr Tahu, who had just closed up.
After calling Mr Tahu a "black bastard" when he
refused to sell him some oil, Hallett is alleged to have used his .22
revolver to shoot the 31-year-old twice.
"As the accused looked down on Mr Tahu injured on
the ground, he took aim for a third and final time with a certain
knowledge that pulling the trigger would end his life," said Mr
Pilditch.
"And Mr Hallett pulled the trigger."
"The Crown's case is that he is guilty of nothing
short of murder."
Hallett will be sentenced on July 12.
Murder accused Menzies Hallett makes shock
retraction
By James Ihaka - NZHerald.co.nz
April 30, 2013
The man accused of murdering Turangi service
station attendant Rodney Tahu has made a shock retraction of an
earlier admission that he had killed the father of two.
Menzies Hallett is on trial for the murder of Mr
Tahu who was gunned down after he completed a shift at the Turangi
Shell service station on August 16, 1979.
During his closing submission this morning, Crown
prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch told the court Hallett had retracted an
earlier admission that he had shot and killed Mr Tahu.
He told the jury of nine women and three men there
were just two issues to consider.
"The issues really are two; was it the accused and
if so did he have murderous intent?"
The Crown alleges Hallett shot Mr Tahu twice, once
in the shoulder and a second shot to the head.
"The accused looked down on Mr Tahu injured on the
ground," said Mr Pilditch.
He took aim for a third and final time with a
certain knowledge that pulling the trigger would end his life - and Mr
Hallett pulled the trigger."
"The Crown's case is that he is guilty of nothing
short of murder."
This morning Hallett's defence didn't call any
witnesses.
In his closing submission, defence lawyer Paul
Mabey QC said the jury need to remove all their emotion from their
decision making.
In his opening last week, Mr Mabey told the jury
Hallett accepted he was the man who shot Mr Tahu but the issue would
be whether it was murder or manslaughter.
Court has now been adjourned until 10am tomorrow
morning, when the judge will sum up the case before sending the jury
out to consider its verdict.
Ex-wife tells of gun flung on bed
By Jamie Morton - NZHerald.co.nz
April 30, 2013
A woman has described how her former husband showed
her the revolver he allegedly used to gun down a service station
worker more than 30 years ago, throwing it on her bed and saying:
"There it is."
Susan Sharpe is a key Crown witness in the cold
case murder trial of her former husband, Menzies Reginald John Hallett.
The Crown alleges a dispute between the pair over
custody of their children enraged Hallett and sparked his "flash
point", leading him to shoot Turangi Shell station attendant Rodney
Tahu in the early hours of August 16, 1979.
Laws at the time meant Mrs Sharpe could not
testify, weakening the Crown's unsuccessful original case against
Hallett, but reforms to the Evidence Act overturning this led police
to reopen the 33-year-old file last year.
At the High Court at Rotorua yesterday, sobs could
be heard from Mr Tahu's family in the public gallery as Mrs Sharpe
told how Hallett arrived at her Wellington apartment early in the
morning and described to her what he had done just a few hours
earlier.
The night before, Hallett had phoned up "drunk" and
angry about a letter she had written denying him custody of their two
daughters, whom he wanted to live with him in Taupo, she said.
Early the next morning, Mrs Sharpe "heard a voice
at my window saying, 'Sue ... Sue ...' in a very soft sort of a tone".
Mrs Sharpe let Hallett in, chatted with him, and
made him a coffee, but it was when she was wanting to leave for work
that he said there was something he needed to tell her, she told the
court.
Hallett appeared "calm and normal" when he revealed
this, leaving Mrs Sharpe in "disbelief".
She said Hallett had been driving south to sort
their differences out when he heard a rattle in his vehicle, pulled
into the Turangi service station and, needing oil, asked the attendant
for help.
Hallett reacted angrily when he was refused because
the station had just closed, calling the worker a "black bastard", she
said.
The worker approached Hallett, who allegedly drew
his pistol and fired at him, missing once.
"He said he'd fired another shot and the man fell
over saying, 'Help, help, help,' and then he just walked over to him
and shot him in the head.
Hallett then "turned around and walked away ... and
he couldn't look back".
Mrs Sharpe said Hallett not only told her what gun
he had used, but showed her.
"He pulled it out of his belt and threw it on the
bed and he said 'there it is' and it lay there for the rest of the
morning."
Mrs Sharpe was "very familiar" with the pistol -
Hallett had even slept with it under his pillow during their
honeymoon, she said.
At 8 o'clock that morning, she said Hallett
suggested tuning in to the radio news "to see if it really did happen
or whether it was a dream".
"So I turned the radio on - and it was on - and he
made a comment that he was amazed how long it took for the body to be
found."
Hallett then began considering heading to the South
Island, where he could dump his weapons or take his own life, she
said.
Mrs Sharpe told defence counsel Paul Mabey, QC,
that Hallett had been calm when talking to her at first: "A little
later on, a few little tears came and a little shudder ... but that
was about the sum total of his emotion."
Mrs Sharpe alerted the police and Hallett was
arrested the next day after a stand-off with police near the Napier-Taupo
Rd.
He was charged with Mr Tahu's murder a few days
later.
A former flatmate of Hallett's, Warwick Nunns, also
told the court how Hallett gave a "brief account" of the murder to him
one night in the 1980s.
"My only query to him was ... why was he still a
free man?" Mr Nunns said.
"He told me that the rules of evidence didn't apply
at the time and a case couldn't be brought against him for a lack of
evidence."
A former girlfriend, Beverley Emmerson, also
testified Hallett had told her he had "been involved in this murder
and he had shot someone".
The trial continues today.
Menzies Hallett
(Mark Taylor/Stuff.co.nz)
The victim
Hallett shot petrol attendant Rodney Tahu with a .22
revolver on the night of August 16, 1979, because Tahu had closed up
the service station and would
not serve him.
