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CHRISTEL YARDLEY / Things
Mark Robert Garson will be sentenced in Hamilton Superior Court on Wednesday. He is pictured the day he filed his petitions.
The fiancée of an Australian tourist killed near Raglan has confronted the killer in court, saying he was not even given a moment to “sit with my love” after the shooting.
Mark Ronald Garson, 24, had previously pleaded guilty to the murder of Sean McKinnon on August 16, 2019, on the west coast of Waikato.
She had also admitted to threatening to kill Bianca Buckley, who saw her fiancé shot in front of her early in the morning in the Te Toto Gorge parking lot.
Buckley spoke directly to Garson when he read his statement on the victim’s impact on his sentence in Hamilton Superior Court Wednesday morning.
“I didn’t have a single moment to sit with my love,” he said.
Garson pleaded guilty to the murder of Australian tourist Sean McKinnon and threatened to kill McKinnon’s fiancee, Bianca Buckley.
That winter morning, Garson had walked around his trailer, knocking on the door and demanding the keys.
McKinnon, who was described by his family as a man who would help anyone, was searching for the keys when Garson fired into the vehicle.
The shot hit McKinnon in the abdomen and shortly after, a second shot hit him in the head.
Garson then threatened Buckley. She gave him the keys and begged him to have a moment with her fiancé.
Instead, Garson said, “No, I’ll take care of him,” and closed the door between them before walking away, Buckley said.
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The couple had been sleeping in a motorhome in the Te Toto Gorge parking lot, near Raglan.
He had taken the future from her, she said, as the couple planned to buy land, build a house and had talked about having children.
As a midwife, she brings the world to life, but sometimes feels sad to hold newborns and think that McKinnon will never have children of her own.
The night McKinnon was killed, he first went into hiding and then sought help on a farm.
McKinnon’s body was later found about 70 miles away, in the abandoned caravan near Hamilton.
Several members of McKinnon’s family were in court, and other family members and friends watched the proceedings from Australia, through an audiovisual link.
The man who supplied the gun used in the shooting, Roderick James Finlayson, was sentenced in July to six months in community detention.
Mark Taylor / Stuff
Police found Sean McKinnon’s body in a trailer in Gordonton, about 70 kilometers from where he was shot.
He had pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
According to the summary of facts read during Finlayson’s sentencing, Garson first contacted Finlayson, who has a firearms license, to purchase a firearm in March 2019.
The couple finally agreed in August 2019 that Finlayson would buy the firearm for $ 400, and Garson brought it to the store.
The Crown acknowledged during that ruling that Finlayson had no idea what the firearm would be used for and never received the $ 400.
Garson’s sentencing is ongoing in Hamilton Superior Court before Judge Christine Gordon.
