By Hannah Bartlett of 
Ngamura Maui was sentenced to 11 months’ home detention in the Tauranga District Court, after hitting a man with his car in Whakatāne.
Photo: Google Maps / Supplied
A judge was “kept up at night” contemplating the right outcome for a young man whose reckless decision to run down a rival over a “diss” on TikTok changed the course of both men’s lives.
Ngamura Maui was part of a “little gang” that called themselves the AGKs and in June 2022, a group of other young men were “dissing” them on a TikTok livestream.
The AGKs responded that they were coming for them and headed to an address in Whakatāne to have it out.
But the AGKs lost the fight and a mate of Maui’s, who’d got there ahead of him, had his car attacked by the soon-to-be victim, who used an axe.
Things started to resolve, as the AGKs started “backing off”, but Maui arrived on the scene and didn’t want to let it go.
In his Toyota Mark X, he accelerated at speed along Whakatāne’s Matirerau Street, and drove straight into the victim, who was walking away and didn’t see it coming.
The 23-year-old was hit with such force that he was “catapulted” through the air, hit a wooden fence, and landed on the concrete.
Maui continued driving to the top of the street, did a u-turn and drove back down the street past where the victim was lying critically ill on the footpath.
He had suffered critical head injuries, and underwent surgery for other trauma, including two broken legs and a broken pelvis.
This week, Maui was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court, where it was heard that the victim is now in assisted living.
Victim’s life ‘significantly and harshly changed’
Crown prosecutor Catherine Harold submitted that while there was hope for some continued improvement through ongoing rehabilitation, the injuries had a significant impact on the victim’s ability to engage in everyday activities.
Judge Stephen Coyle agreed the victim’s life had been “significantly and harshly changed”.
Maui was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard, and also faced a further charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, for his actions after the road incident.
While the victim was being treated, Maui had, in the judge’s words, “tried to cover it all up”, sending a text to his partner asking her to give him a false alibi.
He’d also texted a mate, asking him to fix his damaged car so he could sell it.
But police caught up with Maui who, on 1 July, was found hiding in another car at a Whakatāne address.
Weighing on Judge Coyle’s mind was whether, if the end sentence reached 24 months’ imprisonment or lower, Maui should be sent to prison, or be given home detention.
The Crown told the judge that even if he reached a sentence that fell within home detention territory, Maui should be sent to prison.
His youth, and the positive changes he’d made, needed to be weighed against principles of denunciation and deterrence, and the judge said the Crown was particularly concerned about the interests of the victim.
“And the fact that his life has been significantly and permanently changed for the worse because of your actions …”
However, Maui’s lawyer Caitlin Gentleman, while accepting the severe harm to the victim, advocated for a sentence of home detention.
She told the judge that since the incident, which happened more than three years ago, Maui had stayed out of trouble and, before the incident, had never been in trouble.
He’d now changed his group of friends, become a father to two young children, was committed to his family, and had been “doing what he can to rehabilitate himself”, Gentleman said.
“Where we are now is a young man who has been leading an offence-free life, on the precipice of going to prison,” she said.
While the offending was serious, both Crown and defence accepted there had been no intent to cause the injuries that transpired.
“On that basis, and on the basis of the changes he has made and exemplified, it would be, in my submission, an unfortunate outcome for a young man in his position to go to prison,” Gentleman said.
The judge adopted a starting point of three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for the grievous bodily harm charge, and uplifted it by nine months for the perverting the course of justice charge.
Maui was given a 25 percent discount for his guilty plea, a 15 percent discount for his personal circumstances outlined in a pre-sentence report, and a 15 percent discount for undue delays.
Gentleman had, in an earlier hearing, sought a stay of proceedings which, though not granted, had brought to light failures in police disclosure that led to undue delays.
Harold acknowledged these delays, and apologised on behalf of the Crown.
With the discounts applied, the end sentence was 23 months’ imprisonment.
‘Not the man you were four years ago’
The judge said the decision over whether to commute this to one of home detention had “kept him up at night”.
In a case where someone has deliberately sped up and driven at someone who is walking away, and hits them, “the community rightly expects that should be dealt with severely and harshly by the courts”.
However, what “tipped” the decision for the judge was Maui’s most recent pre-sentence report.
“You have stopped associating with the people in your life who were helping you make bad decisions,” the judge said.
“You are now surrounding yourself with whānau who are helping you make good decisions.”
Maui had told the report writer he was “devastated” thinking about the victim.
“In short, you are not the man today that you were four years ago and that is because you have made some significant changes,” said Judge Coyle.
“If I send you to jail today, those changes are at risk of unravelling …”
Maui was sentenced to 11 months’ home detention, with six months’ post-detention conditions, which included undertaking programmes as directed.
Maui had offered to pay emotional harm reparation but the judge declined to order that, as given Maui’s limited means, it would have to be drip-fed in small amounts to the victim, which could be offensive and “rub salt into the wound”.
The judge concluded by telling him to remain motivated in the changes he’d made, for the sake of his family, and to continue to make wise choices about his friends.
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.
Photo: Open Justice