Julia DeLuney has been sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years, for the murder of her mother, 79-year-old Helen Gregory.
She was found guilty of the murder by a jury in the High Court at Wellington in July.
Justice Peter Churchman, handing down her sentence at the High Court in Wellington on Friday afternoon, told the court there were no mitigating factors relating to the offending.
Being found guilty of murder meant a sentence of life imprisonment, and as Churchman explained, what was to be decided was the minimum non-parole period.
Aggravating factors included Gregory’s vulnerability, he said, due to her age and the fact that the attack happened in her own home, as well as the lengths DeLuney went to to conceal her involvement.
He also pointed to a high level of callousness, brutality and cruelty of the prolonged attack, which left Gregory with 75 separate injuries, including 11 cuts to her head, two skull fractures, and a brain bleed.
One blow was so forceful it produced blood spatter “similar to a gunshot wound,” he said, referring to the evidence of ESR scientist Glenys Knight.
He told the court DeLuney had told the pre-sentence report writer she did in fact have a successful crypto-currency portfolio – despite evidence being shown during the trial of her dealings being unsuccessful, leaving her financially struggling.
“You are still in denial, despite the evidence to the contrary being overwhelming,” he said.
“Your unwillingness to accept what you have done has put Ms Gregory’s family and friends through the anguish of reliving the events around her death.”
Victim impact statements were read out to the court, including one on behalf of Gregory’s siblings, the Wilson family.
It spoke of the emotional toll the past 18 months had taken, as they grappled with grief – as well as a “genuine fear” for their own safety, and of bumping into DeLuney in the community.
Some triple-locked their homes, or slept with a frying pan next to their beds, it said.
They said it was “very hard to learn in open court” about the violence, manipulation and dishonesty that had taken place.
“You could have shown true love for your family, Julia, by showing honesty from the beginning and taking responsibility for your actions.”
Instead, she had put her family through a “prolonged ordeal of a court case”.
The stress had aged them, the statement said, without their sister, the family matriarch, to be their confidant.
“They wonder how they could have changed things [to] avoid this devastating outcome,” the statement said.
They said they hoped DeLuney would get the help she needed in prison – and that she was handed a sentence long enough “that they wont be seeing you in the community again”.
Quentin Duff, DeLuney’s lawyer, said his client would never admit to the assaults that had been described, and therefore could not show remorse, as she “never employed violence” against anybody.
“The toll has been enormous on everybody, your honour, including Mrs DeLuney,” Duff said.
The defence argued for a non-parole period of 17 years, and the Crown argued for 18. Justice Churchman ultimately agreed with the Crown.