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A drug dealer high on methamphetamine has been jailed for more than nine years after a fatal hit and run in Christchurch.
Liam Teau Ariki Strickland, 22, was fleeing police in a stolen van when he ran over and killed Dean Amies, 48, in the coastal suburb of New Brighton just before 2 p.m. on Aug. 7 last year.
Strickland, a father of two, was finally arrested after a nine-day police chase.
In Christchurch Superior Court this morning, Amies’ friends and family read the fact sheet and listened to it.
Strickland had been driving a Subaru he had stolen three weeks earlier, the court heard.
He had two passengers when police saw him on Marlow Rd, who turned on their lights and directed him to stop.
But he drove fast and continued to drive “recklessly and evasively” at speeds of up to 90 km / h on residential streets.
Smoke was seen billowing from the car’s engine as it struggled under Strickland’s erratic driving through the streets of the city’s eastern suburbs, passing red lights and crossing the center line.
When he took a sharp left turn onto Lonsdale St in New Brighton, he lost control, climbed onto the grass berm on the side of the road, hit a stop sign and some rocks near a house, and damaged his stolen car.
He dumped it nearby and with an associate, jumped a fence and stole a dealer’s Nissan pickup.
After taking off again and crashing into a police dog vehicle, he sped down Shaw St toward the Hawke St roundabout, with police in pursuit.
As Strickland approached the roundabout, a crowded area with shoppers and others walking on the trail, he was going at about 60 km / h, the court heard.
Amies was standing in the driveway, staring at the speeding van and waving her arms to make it stop.
But Strickland, who claims he never saw Amies, struck him in the middle of the front of the truck. It made no attempt to slow down or miss. He was still accelerating when it hit him.
Amies was dragged under the truck for about 20 meters.
Strickland then took off without stopping to see Amies, who was fatally injured and died at the scene.
He later abandoned the truck and fled for nine days while police raided known associates and followed leads.
After Strickland’s arrest, he eventually pleaded guilty to a series of charges, including one of involuntary manslaughter.
Today, Crown Prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said it was not an accident but “perhaps a predictable outcome” given Strickland’s attitude that day.
While Strickland’s defense attorney Rupert Glover said he was deeply sorry for the tragic outcome of his “drug-fueled episode,” Amies’ distraught family says they have never seen any remorse or regret.
The victim’s sister, Carla Amies, called him a “coward” and addressed him directly at the dock: “You could have stopped. Why didn’t you stop?”
She described his actions as “cruel” and “insensitive” and, although he pleaded guilty to murder, she told him: “I will always find you guilty of murder.”
His father, Barry Amies, said his heart aches every day from the needless loss of his son.
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he didn’t deserve to lose his life in such a tragic way,” he said.
The court heard that Strickland – whose own father had been a drug dealer – had admitted to being a “chronic” methamphetamine user, selling drugs to fund his daily habit.
Judge Rob Osborne said there was no sentence he could impose that could replace a beloved son, brother and uncle, widely known as a “lovely guy.”
The judge said Strickland’s mind was so focused on his own escape that day that he didn’t see Amies until it was too late.
“He didn’t hesitate, let alone stopped,” Judge Osborne told Strickland, who has a string of prior criminal convictions.
“The reason you drove like you did was to avoid being caught and taken back into custody. It was all about you.”
Judge Osborne sentenced him to nine years and four months in jail. He decided that a minimum period of non-parole was not necessary, but gave him the mandatory three-strike warning.
