Rockafella, 37, was arrested in July last year after slamming his rental ute into a line of three vehicles near Auckland Airport around 4am. The crash – in which Rockafella had been travelling at 105km/h in a 50km/h zone just seconds before impact – killed fellow motorist Arvind “Ronald” Kumar, 45, who was dropping his wife off for a flight to Fiji to attend an aunt’s funeral.
The defendant had spent the morning at SkyCity Casino and was driving back to his airport hotel while nearly twice the legal limit for alcohol intoxication. He also had traces of cannabis and a sedative in his blood, and his methamphetamine level was eight times over the high-risk threshold.
Rockafella initially claimed to police that he had consumed only two whiskey and cola drinks at the casino, but acknowledged in an interview with authorities after his guilty pleas that he had also consumed a bottle of champagne in his hotel room before heading to the casino just before 2am.
“My friends have told me, ‘Man, we spoke to you that night, and we were telling you, ‘Don’t leave, you were drunk,’ [but] I don’t even remember them talking to me,” he explained to a probation officer. “Clearly, I didn’t know what the F I was doing.”
Seconds after the crash, Rockafella left the scene in what he would later describe as a “panic”. He pulled his damaged rental into the carpark of his hotel shortly thereafter and was restrained by a witness to the crash, aided by a security guard.
While waiting for police to arrive, he threw small bags of cannabis and methamphetamine under his vehicle.
‘I lost half of my life’
Kumar was remembered this week as someone who was always willing to help others in need – family and strangers alike.
“He was a kind, honest, respectful, compassionate and dependable man,” his brother-in-law, Parmesh Gounder, wrote in a victim impact statement on behalf of the entire family. “Helping people was simply part of his character.”
Arvind Kumar was killed in a car accident on George Bolt Memorial Drive near Auckland Airport.
He was described as someone who had been respected both in New Zealand and in Fiji, where six people depended on him financially. He was also a devoted husband and “an important source of love, guidance, cultural connection and practical help” to many.
Kumar was employed as a truck driver. He immigrated to New Zealand with his wife, Joshoda Gounder, in 2023 in search of better opportunities, his brother-in-law said.
“He came prepared to work hard, build a future and financially support the people who depended on him,” the victim impact statement read. “He was a hard-working man who took pride in his work.”
His wife also suffered injuries in the crash, but the pain in her heart from suddenly finding herself a widow was far worse, the court was told.
“What I lost in the accident was half of my life,” she explained.
She recalled the “exceptionally close bond” the couple had, and how she would often tease him about various things, as married couples do at times.
“Arvind, with his kind and gentle nature, would never react badly or say anything,” the sentencing judge was told.
Kumar was also the person in the relationship who had spearheaded the couple’s immigration effort, so his death left his widow with the stress and burden of trying to navigate the process alone.
Arvind Kumar, 45, died in an accident on George Bolt Memorial Drive, near Auckland Airport.
In Fiji, the brother-in-law said, “There is very little happiness left in the family”.
“We are not asking for revenge; what we ask for is justice and accountability,” he said, explaining that the family hoped the court could “recognise the value of the life that was lost”.
‘You chose to offend’
Rockafella had earlier been set to go to trial this month for manslaughter. But prosecutors withdrew that charge in March and replaced it with one of causing death with an excessive level of methamphetamine in his system.
Manslaughter carries an open punishment range – anywhere from home detention to life imprisonment – that varies widely from case to case. He faced a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a $20,000 fine for the reduced charge.
Rockafella also pleaded guilty in July to causing injury with excessive methamphetamine, failing to stop and ascertain injury, cannabis possession, methamphetamine possession and driving while intoxicated.
Melbourne resident Michael Rockafella appears in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing. Photo / Craig Kapitan
Defence lawyer Steven Lack described his client as deeply remorseful. What occurred that morning wasn’t just the result of a few bad decisions but rather the culmination of years of trauma in his life and his dependence on drugs and alcohol to dull the pain and hardship, he said.
Rockafella had been exposed to violence from his father at a young age and was bullied in school for his Lebanese heritage, the lawyer said. He moved with his father to Lebanon after he was expelled from school at age 17.
Rockafella witnessed more violence in Lebanon, including the murder of his father in 2019, the court was told. He developed a drug addiction early in life and at one point, while selling drugs to support his habit, was kidnapped and physically abused for multiple days, Lack said.
He met his second wife in Lebanon in 2024 and brought his four children from his previous marriage to meet her there. They had to escape on a container ship to Turkey due to Israeli bombings, the court was told.
“The new relationship with your second wife struck problems in 2025, after the family returned to Australia, when your second wife, while pregnant with your child, told you she didn’t want to be a mother to your other four children,” Justice Gordon noted.
“You say you travelled to New Zealand to remove yourself from a stressful situation for a few days.”
The defence sought a five-and-a-half-year starting point, followed by 60% in reductions for Rockafella’s traumatic background and other factors. A 2025 law change bars judges from allowing discounts of over 40% unless failing to do so would be “manifestly unjust”. In this situation, it would be, Lack argued.
But Justice Gordon was unconvinced.
She agreed with Crown prosecutor Charlotte Best that the starting point should be seven years. She then allowed just 20% in discounts, resulting in a sentence of five years and seven months’ imprisonment.
Justice Christine Gordon. Photo / George Heard
The judge declined any reduction for Rockafella’s background, noting that he didn’t have to drive even if he was more predisposed to resort to drugs and alcohol at times of stress.
She noted that he had been released on bail for about six months but was re-arrested last year after he was caught using alcohol and cocaine.
Justice Gordon allowed a 5% reduction for the impact imprisonment would have on Rockafella’s children, even though, she noted, “You came to New Zealand, leaving them behind.”
She also allowed 5% for his remorse and 10% for his guilty pleas. She declined his requested reduction for the additional hardship of being a foreign national in a New Zealand prison.
“The reality is that you came to this country and almost immediately offended,” she said. “You chose to offend.”
Rockafella was also disqualified from driving in New Zealand for five years and ordered to pay $2080 for analyst fees and medical expenses.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.