Woman in Wellington finger cut case follows husband in custody

A woman whose husband cut off the finger of a drug debtor has now also been convicted of injuring the victim.

Pamela Saili Kalepo, 38, stifled sobs when a Wellington Superior Court jury returned guilty verdicts on the charge and another for the woman’s kidnapping Thursday.

But people in the public gallery applauded the first jury’s verdict that Samuel Anthony Gray was not guilty of abducting the woman.

The judge had already dismissed the charge against Gray, 28, of injuring the victim with the intention of causing serious bodily harm.

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Kalepo was placed in pretrial detention for his sentencing in December.

Her husband, Willie Brandon Lance Malua Bentley, 32, was sentenced in September to six years and nine months in jail, taking into account his guilty plea and other factors, on charges of kidnapping and injuries.

Kalepo had lived in Auckland with his children, but was in Wellington late on March 13, 2019, when the victim was forced out of a Cuba St hotel into a car with Malua Bentley and others. It was said that he had an old drug debt, perhaps $ 1,400 or $ 1,500.

The driver was Malua Bentley’s girlfriend, who appeared to be friends with Kalepo.

The victim said she was beaten and taken to Waitaha Cove on Wellington’s south shore, where Malua Bentley held her underwater before he and Kalepo attempted to cut off her finger.

He said he was unconscious and when he woke up his finger was gone. She said she was beaten in various ways and people laughed when Malua Bentley stood on her hand and spat blood.

She didn’t know what happened to her finger. He heard it could be in a glasses case Malua Bentley was using, he said.

She also said that she was sexually assaulted but that no one was accused of doing so.

Another woman, Malua Bentley, was said to have an affair with a rented flat on Arthur St, Wellington, where the victim spent some time before the tenant found out and demanded to be moved.

The police investigation revealed a photograph of the victim hunched on the ground, Malua Bentley and another man sitting on a sofa, and a shotgun on a table. The carpet and the floor where she was crouched were later found soaked with her blood, the jury heard.

The victim said she escaped from a nearby apartment when her captors fell asleep early on March 18, 2019.

Agent Nigel Frame found the woman cowering and whimpering under the stairs in a second hotel on Cuba St.

He took photos as ambulance officers unwrapped rags around his hand and the open wound where his index finger had been.

A hospital doctor noticed marks around his neck from a rope or perhaps cloth, and the orthopedic surgeon who ordered the amputation site said his hand did not smell good.

The jury saw an interview that the police recorded with the woman four days after her escape.

In the recording, she said that Gray had put a rope or chain around her neck in the car the first night, also stood on her hand and held her in her car while she tried to contact people who could help her pay the debt .

However, on cross-examination she admitted that she could be wrong about Gray being in the first car, and he had helped her while she was trying to raise the money.

She apologized for saying that he stood on her hand. She was getting revenge on him for a relative who went to jail for shooting Gray, she said.

In court, his evidence against Kalepo also changed from the recorded interview. She said Kalepo was only pretending to try to cut off her finger and while Kalepo was watching her they gave her food, clothing and a “puff” of methamphetamine to ease the pain.

The Crown said the jury should prefer the woman’s earlier account, but that at least Kalepo had encouraged her husband.