Surprise pleas behind fatal Dunedin fleeing driver case
The driver of a car which fled from police and was later involved in a fatal crash has pleaded guilty.
Robert Francis Taylor, 30, appeared before Justice Cameron Mander in the Dunedin District Court yesterday morning. He entered pleas to manslaughter and burglary, and was convicted on both charges.
The burglary related to $300 worth of beer stolen from the Bottle-O on Hillside Rd early on May 27.
After that robbery, the vehicle fled the scene and from a police patrol car, but it later crashed on Melbourne St, in the Dunedin suburb of St Kilda. Michael John McClelland, 26, died at the scene.
On the night of the fatal crash, Taylor and the associates had been drinking, but ran out of alcohol and planned to steal some.
They drove to the liquor store in a stolen Mazda Axela. An associate used bolt cutters to open an outside container, and they stole seven crates of beer, worth $370.
Taylor turned the lights of the getaway vehicle off, as a member of the public raised the alarm, but one of vehicle occupants gave them a crate and said their complaint goes no further. The five men left the scene in the vehicle, with the headlights still off, but it caught the attention of police.
The court heard after a brief pursuit, Taylor continued to drive at speed and narrowly avoided a crash with a member of the public.
The vehicle drove across the centreline of King Edward St, and then down the one-way Melbourne St at about 90kmh.
He travelled into a chicane, and hit a kerb, narrowly missing a home and ended-up against the side of a power pole, splitting it open. McClelland was a rear seat passenger, and died at the scene. Taylor was the only occupant to run, but was later located by a police dog unit.
Taylor recorded a blood alcohol reading of 153 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, three times the legal limit.
Taylor declined to comment to police. He was remanded in custody and would be sentenced in June. Another person involved in the burglary remains before the courts.
After the crash Bottle-O Hillside Bathgate Park manager Michael Sumner said: “I know they stole six crates of beer, worth around $300. What a waste of a life for $300.”