Snow, frost, Zeus, Zion and the most tragic of murders
OPINION: Methamphetamine. That insidious, mind-warping, one-hell-of-a-trip drug. Spawning nightmares of murder, robbery and insanity in the minds of lawabiding citizens and driving others into downright crazy activity.
It also seemed to have a hand in almost every big story to come from Manawatu courts in 2016.
It brought together Samuel Culling and the man police believe killed him – Hemi Te Poono.
If it was not for meth, the pair may never have met. Instead, it ended with Culling being shot in the back of the head with a 12-gauge, and Te Poono – who admits he was the last person to see him alive – being charged with, and ultimately found not guilty of, his murder.
Te Poono is one of many people who should be dragged around schools as exhibits, while someone else tells the children ‘‘this is why you don’t smoke meth’’.
Another is James Lahina. Of all the jury trials I have covered, no witness has come across as more out of this world than him.
He was a key Crown witness in the trial of five men charged with murdering John Poto Whatuira in Woodville. His mind came across as being warped beyond reality, years of getting awesomely high on a cornucopia of drugs, meth the most recent favourite, obviously taking a toll.
The way he boasted about being up on meth for three weeks straight was alarming.
The way he recounted being stabbed by people at Whatuira’s burial, saying it felt good, was disturbing.
Hearing his medical records, in which he told a doctor Zeus and Zion were warring for his mind, should be enough to put anyone off the thought of trying meth.
The drug must make police officers’ jobs so much harder.
It is more expensive than cannabis, but reports from across the country show it is far easier to get. But at least it has inspired great names for police operations.
Usually operations are named after the streets where investigations begin. Methamphetamine investigations, however, riff off common names for the drugs.
Operation Frost and Operation Snowman were two that went through the courts, inspiring headlines like ‘‘Snowman chills in jail’’ or ‘‘Frost on ice’’.
But sometimes methamphetamine is not involved. Sometimes we never find out what the reasons are.
No-one has any idea why Eric Mcisaac, sentenced in 2016 to life in jail, killed his half-brother Alex Fisher.
He would not tell police, or even his mother, what happened that night on Waitarere Beach.
The reasons behind offending can be complicated and well beyond the grasp of those brought up in middle-class New Zealand.
As Judge Gregory Ross said when he spoke to me after his retirement, ‘‘some of [the defendants] are right down there’’.
‘‘I’m very conscious most of the people we deal with in your police court ... you’re dealing with the lost and the lonely, the last and the least of people.’’
We Kiwis pride ourselves on helping others, whether it be the neighbour or someone in trouble.
No matter what people have done, or where they have come from, or what substances they are smoking in glass pipes, sometimes they just need assistance.