Assassin jailed for at least 17 years

10:30AM Thursday February 15, 2007
Tam Yam Ah was killed in 2005
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Read the full story behind the murder
A hitman who murdered a triad enforcer with a single shot to his chest will spend at least 17 years in jail.
Wan Yee Chow, 55, was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years today when he appeared for sentencing in the High Court in Auckland.
A jury last year found him guilty of murdering Tam Yam Ah, 37, in July 2005.
Tam, a long-time criminal and triad enforcer, was shot dead outside his karaoke bar in Symonds Street, Auckland.
Chow drove from the Hutt Valley to Auckland, donned black clothes and headgear, then shot Mr Tam.
Prosecutor Kieran Raftery told the court the murder was "a cold-blooded Chinese gang killing".
Tam arrived in New Zealand in the late 1980s.
He beat his wife, the court heard, and she retaliated by drugging him and hitting him with a meat cleaver.
She was acquitted on a charge of attempted murder after her lawyer argued she suffered battered women's syndrome.
Tam has previously served at least two jail terms for a variety of offences.