Thumbs up in court

Kay Blundell at the Dom Post reports:

Supporters of a 26-year-old man charged with murdering his 23-year-old partner raised heavily tattooed arms and gave him the thumbs up when he left the dock in Levin District Court yesterday.

The young mother of two children, believed to be aged three and six, was shot in Ngaio St, Otaki Beach, about 4pm on Sunday. She was flown to Wellington Hospital but died yesterday morning.

The man charged with murder and illegal possession of a firearm stood defiantly in the dock yesterday and was remanded in custody to reappear later this month. He and the victim were given name suppression.

I wonder what the correlation is between being having supporters turn up in court and cheer you as a hero, and being guility of murder. I suspect it is close to 100%.