Overwhelming grief at brother’s death triggered threats

The brother of a man killed in a crash caused by a Fulton Hogan worker retaliated by threatening other road workers with a meat cleaver,saying “I’ll put this through your head”.

Nicholas Pukeroa admitted he had reached a breaking point on the day he lashed out at the Whanga¯rei crew.

“You were completely overruled by emotion; I can understand what pressure you were under,” Judge Philip Rzepecky said when sentencing him on Thursday in the Whanga¯rei District Court.

The 37-year-old was convicted on charges of possession of an offensive weapon, assault with a weapon, assault and wilful damage.

In April 2021, his brother, Cale Pukeroa-Bucknell, was killed in a crash caused by Fulton Hogan employee Jerome Tuaumu.

Tuaumu was driving a company truck that was towing a trailer when he overtook a pilot vehicle and a road sweeper he had been following on Matapouri Rd, a windy coastal road leading to popular holiday spot Tu¯tu¯ka¯ka¯.

As Tuaumu moved back into his lane and approached a corner, Pukeroa-Bucknell came around the bend on his motorcycle.

He hit the side of Tuaumu’s truck and died at the scene on Matapouri Rd.

Only months later, in September 2021, Nicholas Pukeroa was driving along Russell Rd from Helena Bay when he came across a Fulton Hogan crew working on the road.

He got out of his vehicle and yelled at the workers while holding a meat cleaver. As he approached the door of one of the vehicles, a worker fled from the car out the other side.

Pukeroa asked the roading crew where Tuaumu was.

Then he swung the cleaver at another worker and said: “Do you want me to sink this in your head?”

Pukeroa proceeded to break an aerial off one of the vehicles and throw it at a worker, which left the worker with bruising.

However, the roadworkers managed to calm Pukeroa and, by the time police arrived at the scene, he was completely co-operative, the court heard.

Defence lawyer Oscar Hintze said his client had let his emotions get the better of him.

“He saw the workers and something snapped inside him. The whole situation of losing his brother has had a huge effect,” Hintze submitted.

From the court’s public gallery, Pukeroa’s father highlighted the grief his son had been grappling with. That pain was exacerbated by the prosecution against Tuaumu, which dragged on for more than 10 court hearings.

Judge Rzepecky was considerate of what the family had been through and commended Pukeroa for his insight into his offending.

“I am taking into account Nick was suffering and there was grief behind it; it doesn’t excuse it. You saw the crew and lost your way.

“You were completely overruled and I can understand the kind of pressure you were under,” Judge Rzepecky said.

Pukeroa was sentenced to eight months of home detention.

Tuaumu was sentenced in October 2022 to community detention, 100 hours of community work and was ordered to pay emotional harm reparation. However, his community work was later cancelled by Corrections.