80-year-old feared for life as intruder held a knife to her throat
A 27-year-old man who has been in and out of prison since the age of 17 has been jailed yet again after he broke into an 80-year-old woman’s home at a Darfield retirement village and held a knife to her throat.
Kalib Kerr-Millar was sentenced to five years and seven months’ imprisonment by the Christchurch District Court yesterday.
The sentencing related to a raft of offending committed over an extended period of time, with the lead offence being an aggravated robbery on July 12, 2022.
On that day, Kerr-Millar and a friend drove a stolen car from Timaru to Christchurch. They filled up the car at a fuel station on the way and left without paying.
As the pair drove through Methven, police noticed the stolen vehicle and used road spikes to deflate its tyres. The men sped away, overtaking other vehicles and fishtailing across the road before abandoning the vehicle and taking off on foot.
Kerr-Millar entered a garage in a retirement complex and tried to steal a Toyota vehicle, but couldn’t because it had a steering lock. He took a black bag containing various items as he left.
About 7.15pm, he entered another house in the retirement complex armed with a knife and was confronted by the elderly occupant, an 80-year-old woman.
He demanded the victim hand over her keys and money as he rifled through her medication, and pocketed some of her late husband’s watches that he found in a drawer.
The victim took him to the garage so he could drive away with her car, then quickly slammed and locked the internal garage door in an attempt to get away from him.
This aggravated Kerr-Millar. He crashed through the door and pinned her to a wall, holding the knife to her throat. He traced the knife back and forth against her skin and she feared she might die.
Kerr-Millar finally left in the woman’s car and was stopped by police when they noticed him driving erratically at speeds of up to 160kph and on the wrong side of the road.
During sentencing, Kerr-Millar’s lawyer, April Kelland, told the court the offending was not premeditated.
“It was somebody in a drugged out state who saw an opportunity, who saw a light on, and that is how far it went [in terms of planning].”
Kelland said Kerr-Millar was the product of a very disadvantaged upbringing, which saw him being sent from foster home to foster home from the age of 6, and finally to Kingslea School “which is essentially a youth prison”.
He also suffered from a severe methamphetamine addiction at the time of the offending, and has never had a job.
Kelland said Kerr-Millar accepted his actions towards the woman in the retirement complex had affected her greatly, and he was “immensely remorseful”.
Judge Katie Elkin accepted Kerr-Millar had genuine remorse. She gave him further discount for pleading guilty to the charges, but took several aggravating factors into account, including the vulnerability of his victim, the use of a knife, the invasion of her home, and the fact it happened while Kerr-Millar was on parole.
The judge did not impose any reparation orders as there was no realistic prospects of it being paid, she said.