You stole his life: victim’s family
Family of murder victim Ihaia Gillman-Harris say they are not ready to forgive the teens responsible for killing their brother.
Leonard Nattrass-Berquist, 19, and Beauen Wallace-Loretz, 18, were yesterday jailed for life after earlier being found guilty of the murder and aggravated robbery of GillmanHarris, 54.
At the sentencing in the High Court at Auckland some family members spoke of forgiveness in their victim impact statements, but brother Hoane Harris, staring at Wallace-Loretz and NattrassBerquist, said the two had stripped his children of an uncle and granduncle.
‘‘Ihaia comes from a huge family. You stole his life.’’
Outside court another brother, Moe Harris, said he was not ready to forgive the two young killers. ‘‘I’m not forgiving at the moment for what those guys have done.’’
The family were happy with the sentence, although the tragedy would follow them forever, Harris said.
Nattrass-Berquist will serve a minimum 10 years and nine months in jail while Wallace-Loretz was given a minimum of 11 years.
At their jury trial earlier this year the court heard the teens had planned through a series of texts to beat and rob Gillman-Harris, whom they had befriended days earlier.
The pair had gone to the Ascot Epsom Motel with Gillman-Harris early on December 27, 2014, but hours later staff discovered GillmanHarris bleeding and disoriented in the carpark.
He died later in hospital.
The teens claimed they had beaten GillmanHarris with a glass liquor bottle in self-defence after fending off an alleged sexual attack by him. The pair left him alive in the motel room, then took his car and went to a party. They were arrested by police days later and only after repeated appeals by police for them to come forward.
Despite the defendants’ explanations for the attack, the jury ultimately rejected the pair’s claim of self-defence.