Four dead but no jail time
Family and friends of four people killed in a crash caused in part by a 20-yearold Hamilton man are outraged he’s not going to prison.
‘‘Well, that’s a f...ing joke,’’ someone in the public gallery exclaimed as Dylan Cossey was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention, 400 hours of community work and disqualified from driving for seven years.
Cossey, who had been found guilty by a High Court jury in Hamilton in February on four counts of manslaughter, was sentenced in the same court yesterday.
He had fled from the scene of a headon smash near Hamilton Airport on the night of June 24, 2016, with his codefendant Stephen John Jones, 20, in the front passenger seat.
Cossey was racing his Honda Integra against a Nissan Skyline at estimated speeds of more than 150kmh.
The race came to a sudden end when the Nissan lost control and collided with an oncoming van about 10pm. In the doomed vehicle were Hannah Leis Strickett-Craze, 24, Lance Tyrone Robinson, 28, and Paul de Silva, 20, all from Waipa, and Jason McCormick Ross, 19, from Taranaki.
Cossey was found guilty of the manslaughter charges while Jones was found not guilty on all four manslaughter charges.
Both Cossey and Jones were also charged with causing injury to the van’s driver and failing to stop to ascertain injury. The van driver suffered multiple leg fractures and had to be cut from his vehicle. Cossey was found guilty of this also, while Jones was found not guilty. Both were guilty of the failing-to-stop charges.
Jones was also found guilty of one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice – a charge that relates to his editing of the video he took of the crash and the moments leading up to and after it, removing 20 seconds of evidence before handing his phone in to police.
Cossey’s sentence was evidently more lenient than many expected.
‘‘I think it’s a joke. Cossey’s behaviour has not shown any remorse or any regard for the event. It does not show a hard line for street racing and I think it should have been tougher,’’ said Amber de Silva, the aunt of Paul de Silva, outside court.
Cossey would still have luxuries such as Sky TV, home-delivered meals and hot showers as he served his sentence, she said.
Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam had sought a starting point for Cossey’s sentence of eight to nine years in prison. Cossey’s counsel Philip Morgan QC urged a three-year starting point – and it was this recommendation that Justice Anne Hinton went with.
A deduction for youth, remorse and prospects of rehabilitation knocked 12 months off, and the judge converted the twoyear jail sentence to 12 months of home detention.
Such a sentence was not a soft option, Justice Hinton said.
‘‘Imprisonment would not be in your interests or in the public’s interests.’’
It would be inappropriate to classify Cossey as being at high risk of reoffending – even though he had offended while on bail on the manslaughter charges, she said.
He had been convicted and discharged on a charge of careless driving, laid because he had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving.
Cossey was prone to ‘‘impulsive, stupid and rash decision-making’’, she said.
‘‘You were an immature, naive 18 year old.
‘‘The behaviour that underlies your offending is a tragic hallmark of youth.’’
While Cossey’s guilty verdicts meant his actions were ‘‘a substantive and operative cause of death’’ of those killed, they were not the only cause, or the primary one.
That was the driving of Lance Robinson, who was behind the wheel of the Skyline when it crashed. A postmortem found him to be three times the legal driving limit for alcohol, and with traces of cannabis and methamphetamine in his bloodstream.
Before the trial began, Cossey had displayed erratic behaviour and had spent 17 days in the Henry Bennett Centre, Waikato Hospital’s mental health unit, as a result.
‘‘I accept that you are remorseful, although you have a strange way of showing it,’’ said the judge.
Prior to sentencing, numerous family members of the four who died delivered their victim statements to the court.
Jones’s day of judgment was delayed: His sentencing was adjourned to May 3, because the Probation Service had not had time to assess whether his home was suitable for either home or community detention.
‘‘I think it’s a joke. Cossey’s behaviour has not shown any remorse or any regard for the event.’’
Amber de Silva - the aunt of Paul de Silva