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Ethan Webster (centre) and William Candy (right) were sentenced in the High Court at New Plymouth in March 2023. (File photo)
Photo: Open Justice / Tara Shaskey
Warning: This story contains graphic details that may disturb some readers.
A teen murderer will no longer serve a life sentence for the grisly killing of his farm colleague.
This week Ethan Webster has had his life sentence quashed due to his significant neurocognitive impairments, which came to light after his sentencing.
Webster was 18 when he and William Mark Candy, 39, murdered Jacob Mills Ramsay by beating him, chaining him to a car by his ankle and dragging him 1km along a gravel tanker track.
They then dumped Ramsay’s body into a manmade rubbish pit at the dairy farm in Oaonui, South Taranaki, where they all worked.
The July 2022 murder was motivated by an alleged “small” debt Ramsay had racked up with the offenders.
Candy and Webster were workers on the same farm as Ramsay.
While the two had been in their roles for at least three years, Ramsay’s employment had begun about one month before his death.
Ramsay’s widow, Sarah Tasker, was pregnant with their third child when he was killed.
Webster and Candy admitted murdering the 33-year-old and were sentenced to life imprisonment in the High Court at New Plymouth in March 2023.
The High Court at New Plymouth. (File photo)
Photo: Supplied / Ministry of Justice
Candy was given a minimum period of imprisonment (MPI) of 17 years, while Webster received a 12-year MPI.
Jodie Shannon Hughes, Candy’s partner at the time, was charged alongside them but was acquitted of murder at a trial and found guilty of manslaughter.
She is serving a sentence of five years and six months.
But whether Webster had the mental capacity to admit murder, and if his life sentence was manifestly unjust, would later come under the microscope of the Court of Appeal.
Appeal against sentence and conviction
In December, the senior court dismissed Webster’s appeal against his conviction but determined that life imprisonment was manifestly unjust and was to be quashed once it had determined a fixed sentence to replace it.
That decision detailed how Webster had been diagnosed with mental impairments attributable to foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) since he was sentenced.
While it was determined there were no issues with his fitness to plead before he admitted the murder charge, more reports were ordered after his sentencing to assist in his appeal against his life sentence.
Those assessments found he met the criteria for mild intellectual disability, confirmed he had dyslexia and also led to the FASD diagnosis.
This gave rise to an appeal against his conviction, on the grounds that intellectual disability was a recognised impairment for the test of unfitness to stand trial within the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act.
However, following further assessments, the Court of Appeal was not satisfied that the evidence proved he was unfit to plead at the relevant time, dismissing that aspect of his appeal.
On his appeal against sentence, the Court of Appeal considered his mental impairment, attributable to FASD, was new information and materially relevant to his culpability, in addition to his youth.
It found Webster was also vulnerable to Candy’s influence, and further considered his low risk of reoffending, remorse and rehabilitation prospects, the length of his MPI and lifetime parole. Webster would not have been eligible for parole until he was 32.
The court ruled a life imprisonment sentence was manifestly unjust when public safety concerns “do not loom large”.
When considering a determinate sentence, the Court of Appeal said in Monday’s decision that it considered the appropriate starting point was 20 years’ imprisonment.
After considering the mitigating factors, which included Webster’s “clinically significant neurocognitive impairments likely related to foetal alcohol spectrum disorder”, that he was socially vulnerable, easily led and suggestible and this was seen as critical to his involvement in the offending, the senior court landed on an end sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment with an MPI of seven years.
Beaten, chained and dragged
On the evening of July 29, 2022, Ramsay was in Ōakura, about a 30-minute drive from the farm. There, he texted another farm worker asking to be picked up.
When Candy got wind of the communication, he told the farm worker to continue messaging Ramsay so he could find him and confront him about the alleged money owed.
Candy found Ramsay at the Ōakura cemetery and immediately punched him in the face and pushed him down a bank.
As Ramsay attempted to defend himself, Candy continued to punch him and wrestled him to the ground.
He accused Ramsay of stealing money and “ruining the farm” while beating him.
Candy then grabbed Ramsay and forced him into the car. He was driven back to the farm while being periodically assaulted by Candy.
He was no longer resisting and was leaning against the passenger door in a semi-conscious state.
When they pulled into the farm, Webster was awaiting their arrival.
Ramsay was now unconscious. Candy shoved his body from the car and on to the ground. His eyes were closed and he was limp and floppy.
Webster grabbed Ramsay by the throat and delivered a number of blows to his head, only stopping when he thought he had broken his hand.
Candy kicked the victim and Webster began stomping on his head.
The two beat Ramsay for a further 10 minutes. At one point, a witness pleaded for them to stop and take Ramsay to the hospital.
But Candy instead fetched a chain and tied Ramsay to the back of the vehicle.
The witness told him what he was doing was wrong but Candy warned them to back off, or they would “be next”.
After slowly driving forward, Candy stopped the vehicle and Webster jumped into the passenger seat.
“You don’t want to be in here for this, this is serious s…. He might be dead by the time we get to the end of the track,” Candy told Webster.
But Webster remained in the car and for about 900m, Ramsay was dragged by his ankle down a gravel tanker track and across a muddy paddock.
The two then detached the chain from the car and pulled Ramsay at least another 20m to the edge of a rubbish pit, where they dumped his body.
Ramsay was bleeding profusely and the skin on the rear of his head had been torn off down to his skull, giving the appearance that he had been “scalped”, the court heard.
He sustained a host of injuries, including numerous fractures and abrasions to his entire back and buttocks.
An autopsy determined he died as a result of multiple blunt-force injuries.
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.