Queenstown man’s plea in kidnap case

A Queenstown man who admitted his part in an aggravated assault before a bizarre kidnapping near Arrowtown was convicted and remanded for sentence yesterday.

Daniel John Kissell, 28, draughtsman, of Lower Shotover, pleaded guilty when he appeared before Judge Kevin Phillips charged with intending to commit a crime, namely theft by violent means, rendering Jason Maynard incapable of resistance, on November 26 last year.

A plea was entered after a sentencing indication and a charge of kidnapping was withdrawn.

Judge Phillips convicted and remanded Kissell on bail for sentence on May 7 and called for an emotional harm report and an appendix to address home detention.

He warned Kissell that under three strikes legislation any further conviction for serious violence would mean a jail sentence without parole or, if murder was committed, a sentence of life.

‘‘You have made an appropriate decision if I may say so,’’ the judge said.

Last month, five people accused of kidnapping and assault were remanded on bail to appear in Invercargill District Court on April 23.

The group – Brooke Sylvia Carpenter, 17; Brodie O’rourke, 24, builder; Charlotte Amelia Spencer Dickson, 18, checkout operator; Michael Philip Coulter, 25, panelbeater, and Rachel Maree Faul, 20 – were remanded at a post-committal conference.

All of the defendants except Faul face charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault on November 26.

Faul faces three charges, namely kidnap, aggravated assault and dangerous driving on that date.

She also faces a separate charge of offering to supply class B drug ecstasy on November 25. No pleas have been entered. The charges relate to an incident in which Mr Maynard, 28, and his girlfriend, 23, were allegedly lured to the intersection of the Crown Range Rd and State Highway 6.

There, the victim was apparently attacked, then allegedly bundled into a car and driven to Arrowtown, where he was dumped on the side of a road.