Pedro rodrigues murdered 70 serial killers

Rawiri (David) Waretini-Karena and Paul Wood were both convicted of committing murder when they were 18 and faced a lifetime either in prison or under strict reporting conditions.

Now, they both have PhDs, and are the first under the current law to have all conditions of their parole dropped.

“I never got anything out of these appointments,” Waretini-Karena, of Kirikiriroa Hamilton, said of the nearly 24 years he reported to a probation officer at least once a month.

After serving 10 years and seven months he was released from jail on life parole. His study journey led to a PhD in indigenous studies.

He says he took the parole reporting and other conditions seriously, but they were unproductive.

“They didn’t seem to have anything to do with rehabilitation or reintegration, as I had met their criteria many years before.”

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Wood had a similar experience, saying having to report on parole for years got in the way of fully moving on with life. Having to check in with his probation officer put him in contact with people with “anti-social tendencies”.

The two men gave written statements to a recent Court of Appeal hearing involving other young people convicted of murder.

The court is considering whether young convicted murderers, who could be seen as not having the same moral responsibility for their actions as adults, should receive finite jail sentences more often, instead of the standard life imprisonment with lifetime parole.

Three young people appealing against their sentences, Georgia Rose Dickey , Christopher James Brown and Katrina Roma Epiha , were convicted of crimes committed when they were 16, 19 and 18 respectively.

The lawyers have raised issues including whether a life sentence was appropriate for crimes committed when the brain was still developing impulse control and the ability to foresee consequences of actions. A young person’s sense of time was different to an adult so a sentence without an end date could be crushing, they said.

The law presumes a life imprisonment sentence will be imposed for murder, but can be avoided if a judge believes it would be “manifestly unjust”. The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision.

The court gave Stuff access to the statements of Waretini-Karena, Wood, the Children’s Commissioner and a senior Department of Corrections manager.

In 1987, Waretini-Karena killed a man he was led to believe was a child abuser. Wood killed his drug supplier, who made sexual advances to him and his girlfriend in late 1995.

Their paths to higher education began in prison, with Waretini-Karena learning to read and write while Wood, a high school dropout, began reading obsessively.

Under a new parole regime that began in 2002, they are the only two so far to have conditions of their parole discharged . Although their parole continues, they are no longer supervised or monitored.

Waretini-Karena asked four times before succeeding in having all parole conditions dropped.

“The process taught me resilience. Every time I was turned down, I asked what I needed to do so I could get a better outcome next time. I would take those steps, and apply again, but then the goal posts would be moved.”

He thought parole conditions were not well-designed for long-term or life parolees.

“You have already met all their requirements, so you just continue on the same course and nothing changes. What needs to happen is growth and development,” he told the court.

That is why I kept going back to the Parole Board, seeking a discharge of my conditions, so I continued to push the boundaries.”

“I had to continually challenge the process otherwise I would have nothing else to live for.”

Although it was Waretini-Karena who first began asking to have parole conditions dropped, it was Wood’s application the Parole Board granted first.

Wood, of Wellington, said having the conditions dropped in 2020 was a path back to being a fully functioning member of society. He left prison after 10 years and 10 months, already on his way to a PhD in psychology.

Parole for 14 years had just one condition he considered helpful: to see a psychologist. The rest was monitoring and risk management. Eventually he saw a probation officer once every 40 days, the least allowed.

Visits to his probation officer put him in contact with people with anti-social tendencies and attitudes.

“The only time I was exposed to those people was when I went to visit probation. It actually becomes a risk factor,” Wood told the court.

“In my experience, being on parole hinders your ability to fully move on with your life, to create a new life for yourself and leave that part of your life behind.”

A person subject to a life sentence could be recalled to prison to resume serving their sentence, for instance if they breached conditions of parole or were accused of re-offending.

In written submissions to the court, Children’s Commissioner Judge Frances Eivers said life parole meant the parolee was always at risk of a disproportionate response to a future mistake.

Having no definite end in sight for a sentence – and the prospect of a life on parole – reduced the hope of those who were sentenced, she said.

A life sentence on someone under the age of 18 could not be considered anything but manifestly unjust, Judge Eivers said.

Ben Clark, national commissioner of corrections services for the Department of Corrections, said people sentenced to a life term when they were young began parole without the life skills of an adult living in the community.

Corrections knew greater wraparound support was needed to manage their risks, he said.

The department held records for 109 people convicted of murder under the age of 18, although records before 2000 were not complete.

Two 13-year-olds appeared to be the youngest. One received a life term and the other received an 18-year sentence. Both have since been released on parole.

Too few young people were sentenced to life imprisonment each year to provide meaningful statistics on their recidivism rates compared to those who were older, Clark said.

A man who gunned down a perceived rival on a winding, bush-clad Coromandel highway has been jailed for 14 years – and treated to a harsh sendoff from court.

“Rot, you fat f…,” yelled the family of Bayden Williams to Adrian Phillips as he was ushered from a courtroom in Hamilton on Tuesday.

Following an almost six-week trial in the High Court at Hamilton earlier this year, Adrian Reginald George Phillips, 24, was found guilty of murdering Bayden Williams, 20.

Williams was found dead on the side of the Kopu-Hikuai Rd on the Coromandel Peninsula on the evening of Wednesday, August 5, 2020.

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The jury found Phillips had deliberately rammed Williams’ vehicle off a twisting stretch of road. When Williams attempted to climb up a bank back to the roadside, about 7pm that night, Phillips fatally injured him by shooting him three times – in the thigh, shoulder and, finally, his head – with a shotgun.

Phillips’ defence case, led by Ron Mansfield, QC, was that he had fired in self-defence because he believed Williams was advancing on him with a knife. However, the jury agreed with the Crown case, led by Rebecca Mann and Jacinda Hamilton, that Phillips was in a murderous rage when he opened fire and had effectively ambushed Williams on the dark, twisting highway.

There had been bad blood between Phillips and Williams and his father, Lance Williams. The two families had been linked by a pair of twin sisters, one of whom was Phillips’ partner, the other the former partner of Williams – and with whom he had a son, Loki. The pair were rekindling a relationship at the time he was killed.

Phillips returned to the High Court at Hamilton on Wednesday for his sentencing before Justice Melanie Harland.

Lance Williams was also there, and he and his wife, Tracy, and brother Josh spoke of their anguish at hearing the manner of Bayden Williams’ death.

Lance Williams was evidently still furious at the man who killed his son “and rolled him into the bush like some animal”.

Seeing his son in a body bag “with one side of his face blown off” was an image that would always stay with him.

“Had I known you were capable of such a brutal act … I would never have opened my door to you.”

Tracy Williams told Phillips her son was “a people pleaser – a humble dude who made everyone welcome, as he did with you.

“He was such a spark of light in our lives, and you have snuffed him out.”

Josh Williams had a blunt assessment of the situation: “You have broken the hearts of many … I hope your time in prison is miserable with every waking moment.”

Mansfield said the actions of Phillips reflected a failure of the mental health system. His client had suffered horrific injuries in a fuel explosion about a year and a half before the shooting, and he had subsequently been assaulted by Lance and Bayden Williams in a confrontation in Tairua earlier that year.

“The consequences are sadly real. While the physical injuries may have healed, the emotional injuries remained real and raw.”

His issues “had not been adequately identified and treated. If they were, we would not be here today.”

In her submissions, Hamilton said Phillips “chose to put his desire for revenge to the fore. He armed himself … and knowing his capacity for anger he engineered a confrontation likely to trigger him[self].

“This offending is not the result of a mental illness. It is the result of the actions of a vengeful and angry man.”

Justice Harland described Phillips’ decision to intercept Williams’ car on the road as “an impulsive and irrational decision … You were not intending to have a civilised discussion to clear the air between you.”

She stopped short of describing the murder as premeditated, however.

Phillips’ case was comparable to other recent killers, including that of “stop-go” murderer Quentin Winders and the case of Raglan tourist murderer Mark Garson .

Hamilton had sought a minimum period of imprisonment of 15-and-a-half years. Mansfield asked for a 10-year minimum.

Phillips had tendered a letter to the court “offering my wholehearted apology … for what happened”.

“I will never forgive myself for what I did.”

Before the trial, Phillips had pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful possession of a shotgun and ammunition, and the judge sentenced him to a concurrent six months for those offences.

The daughter of a man gunned down as he worked has spoken out about the aftermath during as his killer is sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in jail.

“Losing dad shattered the family and now we’re left trying to put the pieces back together,” Rochai Tairoa said as she read out her victim impact statement.

“The problem is the pieces will never fit back together like they did before because dad was the anchor piece that is missing.”

Quinton Paul Winders, 45, was found guilty of murdering George Taiaroa after five-week trial at the High Court in Rotorua in September.

The verdict was unanimous.

On Friday morning Justice Kit Toogood sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minium non-parole period of 17 years.

“I offer you a piece of advice Mr Winders,” Justice Toogood said.

“You may find it difficult to the [convince] the parole board if you do not admit your guilt.”

However, a statement issued by Winder’s sister Miranda Dallow following the sentence indicated that was not likely.

“Quinton Winders is an innocent man and sadly with great regret this is not closure for either family at this time,” she said.

“We as a family will continue to fight for my brother’s freedom and this miscarriage of justice that has occurred. We hope that justice will prevail.”

Dallow said as a family they acknowledged the Taiaroa family personally and the loss of “their loved one George” and said he did not deserved what happened.

“We appreciate they need closure as a family as it’s been a very emotional roller coaster for both of our families.

“However, we are saddened by the lack of professionalism given by the New Zealand police and the way that they have handled this case based off circumstantial evidence and incriminating and framing an innocent man who has never met George Taiaroa and could not ever identify George prior to this case.”

The sentencing proceedings began with Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon reading a victim impact statement out on behalf of Taiaroa’s son, Chad Taiaroa.

“It has been nearly four years since my dad was taken from us and yet I still think about him everyday,” the statement read.

“I miss his fishing and the way he would bring over fresh filleted fish for us. I miss him more than words can express especially on Christmas Day, Fathers Day and family birthdays.

“Any man can be a father but it takes someone special to be father … and I just miss him so much.”

Taiaroa’s daughter, Rochai then read her victim impact statement to the court.

“We have heard throughout the trial that the defendant was a hard working man, so was our father.

“We heard that the defendant was frugal, well my father definitely wasn’t that.

“He was very generous, maybe to a fault. People had stolen from us and my father would say, well maybe they needed it more than we did.”

Rochai Taiaroa said her father was a social butterfly and was so proud of them all.

“Your honour, I’m not saying dad was perfect… but to me, our dad was perfect.

“I’m not asking for justice, the only justice is to have our dad back. I’m asking for time, the time that has been stolen from our family…”

Defence lawyer Jonathan Temm said he had spent time with Winders in prison prior to sentencing.

“His instructions to me are maintained,” Temm told the court.

“He maintains that he was not involved, he does not accept that the police [case] was fair… he’s quite adamant that he never met Mr Taiaroa.”

Temm said his client sees the police interview at the Rotorua police station as “lies”.

“He is not anti-social… he is not an Armani Cowboy”.

Justice Toogood, addressing Winders, said the identity of the offender was “the single issue of your trial”.

“You denied and continue to deny you were [the offender].”

Because this crime cannot be explained by Winders’ background, Justice Toogood said he sought the help of experts.

“You appear to have persuaded the report writers that there was nothing sinister in [shooting at poachers].”

He said the sentence should act as a deterrence to others.

Gordon called for a minimum period of 15 – 16 years without parole while Temm suggested a period of 12 years at the most.

TRIAL SUMMARY

The Crown alleged a minor traffic accident, which Winders blamed Taiaroa for, was the catalyst for the killing.

“No-one heard the shot, but the coverage that followed resonated around New Zealand,” said Crown prosecutor Amanda Gordon in the trial’s opening, describing the killing as a “murder” that “shocked the nation”.

She said a truck driver saw Taiaroa beckoned over to the window of a blue Jeep Cherokee.

“He [Taiaroa] was then seen to immediately fall to the ground, the blue Jeep Cherokee then sped off.”

Gordon conceded it might seem “inexplicable” that a minor traffic accident could escalate into murder, but she told the jury the accident “concerned the Winders [family] more than you might think”.

Gordon also claimed Winders’ blue Jeep Cherokee was later found at his parents’ property, and efforts had been made to alter its appearance.

“The defendant and the murderer drove a blue Jeep Cherokee,” she said.

“Evidence, when put together, will establish Quinton Winders was the driver of that Jeep Cherokee.”

Defence lawyer Jonathan Temm, however, claimed no motive existed for Winders to want to kill Taiaroa.

Pointing to Winders in the witness box on the opening day of the trial, Temm addressed the jury directly.

“Is this man here, this man, the man who shot the deceased?” he said.

“He doesn’t know Mr Taiaroa, never met him, no dealings with him, no motive to kill him.”

Temm also took issue with the differing descriptions given by witnesses of the vehicle seen at the scene, and the police investigation into his client.

“He [Quinton Winders] was the only focus … Police haven’t followed the evidence. They’ve made him their target. The defence is going to show you there is other evidence they’ve simply ignored.”

Temm also argued it was hard to believe Quinton Winders made a 500km round trip “in order to kill a man he’s never met, never spoken to and had no reason to kill”.

“The police are not always right and the correct place to start is Mr Winders is innocent,” he said.

The trial ran for five weeks with the jury of seven women and five men hearing from more than 150 witnesses, visiting key locations in and around the crime scene and examining Winders’ blue Jeep Cherokee.