Hit-and-run driver jailed

The man charged with killing a teenage girl in a hit-and-run incident in the King Country last year has been sentenced to four years in jail.

Broc Kawhena was drunk and speeding in Otorohanga when the unwarranted, unregistered Honda Accord he was driving slammed into 17-year-old Ocean Heke in the early hours of a Sunday morning.

The girl, who had been walking home to her father’s house from a party, was killed instantly.

Kawhena, 21, of Te Kuiti, pleaded guilty in March to a charge of causing death while in charge of a motor vehicle, laid in relation to the incident on April 3 last year.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A large contingent of both Kawhena and Heke’s families were in the High Court in Hamilton to hear the sentence, delivered by Justice Christine Gordon.

Prior to the delivery of that sentence, Heke’s mother, Bella Tupu, tearfully read out a victim impact statement to the court.

‘‘Time has not made it any easier to accept her passing,’’ she said. ‘‘Every day hurts … I cannot sleep. I have a broken heart.

‘‘That she died alone is the most unimaginable feeling. There were two people in the car that hit Ocean and not one of them tried to help her.

‘‘I had to identify my girl. That’s something I will never forget.’’

She had also been distraught that her daughter had to be left on the side of the road for hours, so a forensic examination could be conducted. Her body then had to be taken to Auckland for a full autopsy.

‘‘I was not even allowed to dress her to prepare her for her tangi, because of the extent of her injuries.’’

Kawhena had initially been facing a charge of manslaughter – which comes with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment – but this was withdrawn by the Crown.

The evening before Heke was killed, Kawhena had been at another nearby party, where he had drunk 18 to 20 bottles of Tui beer.

His hosts at that party had convinced him to stay the night and he had gone to sleep at that house.

However, sometime before 3.30am, he was woken by his partner, who had also been at the party and who wanted to be taken home.

Although still drunk and evidently not happy, Kawhena complied. He was a restricted driver and was not allowed to be driving after 10pm. The road was wet from recent rain. It was misty. And Kawhena and his partner were arguing.

Shortly after departing, he hit a car parked on the side of the road, shunting it off the road. The impact knocked the front bumper of the Accord off completely. Yet Kawhena sped on.

The road he was travelling on towards central Otorohanga, Main North Road, had a speed limit of 70kmh, dropping to 50kmh. Kawhena was doing an estimated 80 to 90kmh.

He took his eyes off the road to look at his partner, with whom he was still arguing. He failed to take a moderate bend and mounted the kerb.

It is not known whether Ocean Heke was on the road, the kerb or the grass verge when she was struck by Kawhena’s car. Her body slammed into the front windscreen of the Accord and was thrown through the air before hitting a brick pillar and a wooden fence. Her injuries were catastrophic.

Kawhena continued driving, but was increasingly out of control. A short distance down the road, he again mounted the kerb and crashed into and through a steel fence outside a trucking firm’s yard.

He and his partner got out of the car and walked to a nearby relative’s house. Heke’s body was found at 6.30am by a group of people who had attended the same party she had, and were also walking home.

By that time, the car Kawhena had crashed was gone. When he was eventually arrested, Kawhena told police he was not aware he had hit a person with his car. He admitted he had been drinking and had hit another car. A pre-sentence report noted he had said he did not accept he had killed Heke, but had pleaded guilty in order to expedite the court process.

From a starting point of five years, the judge made a 5 per cent reduction for Kawhena’s youth and a 15 per cent reduction for his guilty plea. The Crown sought to have him incarcerated for at least half of his sentence, but the judge declined to impose this.

She also declined a request for reparation of almost $6000, sought by the trucking firm for its damaged fence. She did, however, disqualify Kawhena from driving for the next four years. Two Waikato police dog handlers, Senior Constable Blair Spalding and Constable Ben Turner, were presented with the New Zealand Bravery Decoration. The duo were noted to have acted with exceptional bravery in a situation of danger when they overpowered an armed gunman in a busy central Hamilton street. The officers, along with colleagues tried to stop the man from driving into the city. The offender fled his van in a supermarket carpark and attempted to take at gunpoint an elderly woman’s car. During the struggle to overpower the offender his loaded shotgun went off, causing pellet wounds to Blair and the offender.