Helped dispose of the gun: final person to be sentenced after roadside execution of Hobart man

More than five years after Hobart dad Jarrod Turner was shot dead at close range, the final person involved in his demise will soon be sentenced – and the full story will finally emerge.

Alani Povalu Moeakiola. Picture: Tasmania Police

More than five years after Gagebrook dad Jarrod Leigh Turner was shot dead at close range, the final person involved in his demise will finally be sentenced.

With the sentencing of Alani Povalu Moeakiola, 34, the full story of Mr Turner’s death will now finally emerge.

In 2019, the convicted drug trafficker was charged alongside Shannon James Duffy with murdering Mr Turner, 22, who died unsuspectingly while urinating on a roadside near Richmond that April.

Moeakiola, now 34, was not present when Duffy pulled the trigger in the execution-style murder, in an act of believed retribution.

He planned to stand trial to fight the accusation, but later had his charge downgraded to accessory after the fact to murder and aggravated assault in 2022.

Moeakiola pleaded guilty, but the case was still held up in the court system for years, with a number of key facts in dispute.

Jarrod Leigh Turner, 22, was shot dead at close range on a roadside in April 2019.

Moeakiola’s co-accused have long been dealt with.

Moeakiola was considered a “person of authority” among criminal associates while living at a Moonah location known as “the shed”.

The Supreme Court of Tasmania previously heard that some 49 people a day would visit “the shed”, with some buying drugs by putting money through a hole in the wall.

Duffy, the murderer and regular visitor to the shed, was jailed in late 2020 for the term of his natural life over Mr Turner’s “cold-blooded and callous killing”.

The 35-year-old can apply for parole in 2037.

Duffy’s girlfriend Jemma Rumley-Cantrell, now 27, was jailed the following month for being an accessory after the fact to murder.

Rumley-Cantrell, who was present during the killing, helped her boyfriend hide from police afterwards, driving them to locations across Tasmania, dying her hair to change her appearance to avoid detection, and buying Duffy a new mobile phone and SIM card.

She has since been released from prison.

Peter Gary Farrow, now 32, avoided a custodial term in 2020 after pleading guilty to perverting justice after harbouring Duffy and Rumley-Cantrell at his Fingal home, and feeding them – although he was not informed at the time about the murder.

The scene outside the Supreme Court of Tasmania after the sentencing of Shannon James Duffy, inside the prison van, over the murder of Jarrod Leigh Turner.

However, he later provided false information to police in a bid to deflect attention and avoid his own prosecution.

In 2021, Jason Clifford Gordon, now 36, was jailed for being an accessory after the fact to murder.

Gordon, who lived with Moeakiola at “the shed” and was his “driver”, helped Moeakiola cover up Duffy’s crime, and help him avoid police apprehension.

Gordon and Duffy cut up the gun used to kill Mr Turner, and threw the pieces into the sea.

Gordon has now served his non-parole period behind bars.

On Wednesday, Justice Michael Brett said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Moeakiola took part in planning the destruction and disposal of the gun.

The roadside where Jarrod Leigh Turner was found dead. Picture: Richard Jupe

He said while Moeakiola was present in the car at the time, he couldn’t find he was “directly physically involved in that process”.

Justice Brett also found no connection between Moeakiola’s actions and the murder.

Moeakiola’s lawyer Greg Richardson noted the “murder was complete” before Moeakiola became involved.

But Justice Brett said the delay in locating and arresting Duffy was the result of assistance “provided to him by various people”.

“It would have been a matter that exacerbated and caused concern to not only to the public, but also the family of the victim,” he said.

Moeakiola will be sentenced at a date to be determined.

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