Killer’s appeal on mental health grounds dismissed
A man who stabbed his former partner to death while she held their 2-year-old son in her arms has failed to get his jail term reduced.
Last year, Ephraim Joseph Beazley admitted stabbing Xi Wang to death and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum 17 years behind bars, by Justice Simon Moore.
In February, Beazley appealed his sentence but judges dismissed his appeal yesterday.
His lawyer, Adam Simperingham, told the Court of Appeal that Justice Moore had not taken into account Beazley’s mental health. However, the Court of Appeal judges did not agree that Beazley suffered from a mental impairment that materially drove his offending or diminished his culpability.
His trial heard that on Monday December 10, 2018, Beazley decided he would kill Wang.
He drove from his home in
Rotorua to South Auckland armed with a sheath knife that he used on hunting trips. Wang’s house was in darkness and Beazley knocked several times.
When Wang came to the door, she was holding their son. Beazley attacked, striking her in the throat, neck, head and genitals with the knife.
Throughout the attack she held on to her son. He then called police and confessed.
At the Court of Appeal, Simperingham said the proper context to sentence Beazley included his religious upbringing, depression and belief that Wang had used and abused him, then thrown him away.
He said Beazley had a rigid thought structure that meant despite the three-hour drive to Wang’s home, he did not change his decision to kill her. ‘‘He had reached the point where the unthinkable seemed to be the only viable option.’’
Crown lawyer Jo Mildenhall said Beazley’s mental health was not such that it could displace the minimum of 17 years non-parole.