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Tom Lee / Stuff
Charlemont St police in Hamilton examine the crime scene the day after Takotoroa Mareikura’s death on September 29, 2018.
A Northland man whose friend fell from the car he was driving and died after hitting his head on the road cried in court upon learning of the consequences for the dead woman’s family.
Quintin Heihei, 30, of Kaeo, was sentenced to nine months of home detention when he appeared in Hamilton District Court on Monday.
He had previously pleaded guilty to one charge of dangerous driving and thus causing the death of 24-year-old Takotoroa Mareikura on September 29, 2018.
Heihei and Mareikura, who had recently moved to Hamilton from Northland, had connected via social media and met for the first time that day.
The couple had spent the day drinking and visiting others in town, one day that came to an end at Charlemont St with Mareikura hailing a cab.
However, they had a disagreement over who should pay the taxi driver and he left without her.
Waikato-Times
The couple had spent the day drinking and visiting others in town, one day that came to an end at Charlemont St.
Mareikura, instead, chased after Heihei’s car as it backed down the driveway, reaching the door and trying to get into the front passenger seat.
But Heihei continued to walk away. Mareikura managed to hold out a short distance, but lost his grip, fell, and hit his head on the road. The impact knocked her unconscious.
Heihei saw what had happened and immediately came to her aid, pulling her off the road. However, the injuries were serious.
She was taken to Waikato hospital, where she remained on life support until her family made the reluctant decision to turn her off on October 1.
That decision and the loss of his beloved sister and daughter had traumatized Mareikura’s family, the court heard.
The victim’s impact statements from her mother and sister were read to court, however Judge Kim Saunders suppressed their names, as well as some of the more traumatic details from the statements.
Mareikura’s mother spoke of not being able to work for two months after her daughter’s death. She had suffered from insomnia, was unable to concentrate, and subsequently suffered financial difficulties.
The sister, whom Mareikura was staying with at the time of his death, spoke about the horror of having to disconnect her brother’s life support the day after the incident.
Judge Saunders took a starting point of three years in jail and allowed a full 25 percent discount for Heihei’s guilty plea.
He also had a cultural account going for him that shed some light on his troubled childhood. Taken together, this justified a 14-month deduction, leading to a 22-month jail term, which the judge converted to nine months of home detention.
Crown prosecutor Sarah Hames had argued prior to sentencing that the cultural report justified only a minimal deduction on the length of the sentence. Although he witnessed domestic violence, he himself was not a direct victim of that violence.
Judge Saunders said that while your upbringing was “similar to the movie Once Were Warriors … you were exposed to it and saw the consequences” and this was something that needed to be considered.
His mother still loved him and had found work in the construction industry.
“Your behavior has undoubtedly changed [Mareikura’s family’s] live backwards … This has been and will continue to be a time of great sadness and conflicting emotions for them. “
Defense attorney Jess Tarrant said her client was extremely sorry for his actions that day.
“He will continue to carry this guilt for the rest of his life … he desperately wants to make amends.”
Mareikura’s family had refused to participate in a restorative justice meeting with Heihei, but it was hoped that this could still happen in the future.
