Lyndon Sheed guilty of manslaughter, two acquitted

A Mongolian MC gang member has been found guilty of manslaughter, while his daughter and potential gang members have been acquitted after the death of a headhunter at a New Year’s Eve party.

It took the jury nearly eight hours to find Lyndon Paul Sheed, a 43-year-old senior Mongolian figure, who was innocent of the murder of Kane Wayman in the early hours of January 1 last year. But he was charged with manslaughter after a two-week trial in Christchurch High Court.

Mitchell Thomas McGregor Carston, 26, and Elizabeth “Liz” Adora Sheed, 26, were acquitted by the jury, who returned from deliberations just after 8pm last night.

All three have denied murder, saying they had nothing to do with Wayman’s death, 46, and raised “serious questions” about the cause of his death.

Defense attorneys singled out holes in the account of a key prosecution witness — whose name was suppressed — and told the jury that testimony was unreliable and riddled with inconsistencies and lies.

Witnesses told him seeing Weyman, who the court heard he was attacked in the early hours of New Year’s Day last year, got drunk and “showed it off” while disrespecting the Mongols and talking about other local gangs.

They claim that Wayman was punched, kicked and trampled on by Lyndon Heed, Caston and a third “curly-haired” who has never been identified, while Wayman’s ex-lover Liz Heed abetted the attack his people. All three defendants deny involvement.

DNA samples taken from Wayman’s bloodstained T-shirt later matched Lyndon Hinds and two “unknown individuals.”

Lindenhead’s lawyer Christopher Lange told the jury that key Crown witnesses should not be believed, especially questioning their story of how Wayman was allegedly “hit” by his client.

Caston’s lawyer said there was no doubt that Wayman was attacked. But they warned the jury that it was not their job to figure out what happened that day.

They only have to judge whether officials have proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Caston and Heeder families were part of, or were parties to, any attack, and if they found out that they were, whether it was a substantial agent Wei Man’s death.

Lawyers argue that if they are unsure, then a plea of ​​not guilty must be filed.

Justice Cameron Mander thanked the jury for their service.

Lindenhead will be sentenced at a later date.

The trial heard how Wayman took a friend to a New Year’s Eve party, where they had fun, loud music, drinking, dancing, pool, spa tub and fireworks.

The court heard earlier that Wayman was in “a relationship of some sort” with Liz Heed at the end of 2020 and fell in love with her.

However, she has broken up, and in the weeks leading up to the party, which allegedly messaged multiple people that Wayman was “in trouble”, she wanted him to be dealt with and wanted his Mercedes.

The witness, who asked not to be named, found the Mongolian gang members polite and a group of “decent guys” during the night.

But they told the jury how Wayman became “more and more drunk” as the night went on and told him to “stop being a dick”.

Tensions started to build, and Wayman was in a bad mood and “behaved badly.”

After drinking alcohol and reportedly taking drugs, he began to disrespect Mongolians and referred to other local gangs.

Later that night, key witnesses to the royal family said they heard male shouting outside and ventured out to see a “curly-haired man” following Weyman, who said he was “nasty all night”.

Witnesses said the “curly-haired guy” started punching and kicking Weyman, who was trying to defend himself, and soon his nose began to bleed.

Witnesses said Lindenhead “hit” Wayman after he came out, and Wayman fell directly to the ground.

“Give someone hiding is different from that…I’ve never seen that kind of shit in my life. Aggression is just another thing. It’s pure hate,” the witness said.

Afterwards, witnesses claimed they heard Lyndon Heeder say Wayman “deserves it.”

As they left the gang, witnesses claimed the attackers told them to drive Wayman’s body off a cliff and were warned: “Nothing to hear, nothing to see”.

Wayman arrived at the hospital but was pronounced dead at 9:20 a.m. on New Year’s Day last year.

The court heard an autopsy found Wayman’s cause of death was blunt force injuries to the head and neck due to an enlarged heart caused by methamphetamine use.