Boyfriend killer jailed for ‘horrific’ act
The parents of a man strangled to death by his girlfriend are ‘‘disgusted’’ her murder charge was downgraded.
Zariah Jae Samson, 25, was sentenced in the High Court in Christchurch yesterday to a sixyear, three-month jail term for the manslaughter of 30-year-old Cory James Protos.
Samson assaulted Protos for hours, then strangled him with a computer cord before pushing his body under her bed. She confessed the next day.
Outside court, Protos’ father, Jimmy Protos, said the family was ‘‘disgusted’’ that Samson’s murder charge had been reduced to manslaughter.
‘‘We’ve come out of court today with a life sentence of nightmares, pain and grief while [Samson] gets the murder charge reduced to manslaughter.’’
Justice Cameron Mander included a non-parole period of three years and three months. Samson has already served that term since being arrested for the April 27, 2014, killing, but she will have to face the Parole Board to apply for her release.
She blew a kiss to her family in court as she was taken out after the sentencing, three days after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Gail and Jimmy Protos told of the terrible effects of learning of their son’s death through Facebook while they were holidaying overseas.
Gail Protos said she was angry Samson had taken so long to admit her guilt for killing their ‘‘beautiful son’’.
The long court proceedings, including two abandoned trial dates, had been ‘‘an endless nightmare’’, she said.
Defence counsel Jonathan Eaton, QC, said Samson’s life had spiralled into drug use and despair after her three children, all aged under 5, were taken by their father to live in the North Island about six weeks before Protos’ death.