When the elderly owner confronted Salanoa, he threatened to smash the windscreen if he didn’t help him.
When the man refused, Salanoa locked the car doors and placed the sword on the dashboard.
The victim called the police and, upon seeing them arrive, Salanoa got out of the car and barricaded himself inside the house.
According to the summary of facts, Salanoa’s erratic and hostile behaviour warranted the intervention of the Armed Offenders Squad and the Police Negotiation Team.
Police also deployed pepper spray, a Taser, a police dog and a firearm to get Salanoa out of the house and arrest him.
During his arrest, Salanoa, 55, was bitten by a police dog, requiring surgery, and the court heard he continued to experience pain.
Victims left distressed and unsettled
While the summary of facts records the home owners weren’t physically harmed, it was clear during Thursday’s sentencing in the Wellington District Court that Salanoa’s actions had a devastating and lasting impact on them.
The man died within days of writing his victim impact statement, which a relative read to the court.
That statement described how the home invasion had left the couple feeling vulnerable and exposed in a place they should have felt safe.
“The impact on our family has been significant. Our children have watched their elderly parents become distressed and unsettled; they have had to provide additional support at a time when they were expected to be stable and secure,” his statement said.
“They worry about our safety, and it has caused emotional pain to see us so shaken.”
His relative explained that following the incident, the man had stopped sleeping. He became anxious and hypervigilant, worried about his wife, their home, their finances, and their future.
Two days after writing his statement, he suffered a fatal heart attack.
The relative told the court she firmly believed the emotional burden he carried following the incident had a significant impact during the final months of his life.
“The timing of his death so soon after documenting the trauma he endured has been incredibly difficult for our family.”
Since his death, his wife’s condition had deteriorated, and she had to be moved into fulltime care, something the family had never planned to do.
John Salanoa was sentenced in the Wellington District Court.
Crown prosecutor George Fitzgerald said the impact on the victims was self-evident from their statements.
He submitted that while the offending was not among the most serious of its type, its impact had undoubtedly been significant and should be considered a substantial aggravating factor.
He challenged the defence’s submission that the sword wasn’t obtained for the purpose of the offending.
Fitzgerald said Salanoa was holding the sword when the victim found him and had threatened to smash the windscreen with it if the man didn’t tell him how to start the car. The threat was implied, he said.
But Salanoa’s lawyer, Alex Dye, said his client didn’t threaten to use the sword on the victim, but rather it was a threat to smash the windscreen with the sword.
Dye acknowledged that while the situation was no doubt frightening, it was different to someone directly threatening a person with violence.
He submitted his client was remorseful.
Dye told the court that at the start of the year, when Salanoa became aware that his victims were scared of returning home, he’d asked his lawyer to email police telling them he bore the couple no ill will and was sorry for what had happened.
In sentencing Salanoa, Judge Jan Kelly referred to the pre-sentence report, in which Salanoa told the report writer he was in a drug-induced psychosis and needed to get out of his nearby flat.
“You saw a fast car and needed to get out.”
Salanoa said his actions weren’t targeted that day and his offending was out of character. The sword had been left at his flat by a former flatmate.
In a letter to the court, Salanoa expressed how sorry he was for the terror, damage and anxiety he had caused, acknowledging his actions were “completely selfish and narcissistic”.
Salanoa said his offending arose from his overindulgence in drugs, which he desperately needed help to overcome.
Judge Kelly accepted the Crown’s suggested starting point of three years’ imprisonment.
The judge declined to give Salanoa a discount for his use of methamphetamine, saying this wasn’t a case where he had sold drugs or offended to fund his addiction.
“There is no causal connection between your drug addiction and this offending.”
The judge granted 5% credit for Salanoa’s remorse and a further 5% for the fact he was under a drug-induced psychosis, as well as a 10% discount for the injuries he suffered.
In addition, she granted a 20% discount for his guilty plea.
On the charge of aggravated burglary, she jailed Salanoa for 22 months, ordering that at the end of his sentence he be released to a residential rehabilitation programme.
She granted leave to apply for home detention if a suitable rehabilitation option became available.
Judge Kelly also imposed a first strike.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
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