{"id":148561,"date":"2025-11-22T19:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T19:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/148561\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T19:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T19:48:16","slug":"jasmine-donaldson-discharged-without-conviction-for-new-years-day-crash-that-killed-jade-richards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/148561\/","title":{"rendered":"Jasmine Donaldson discharged without conviction for New Year\u2019s Day crash that killed Jade Richards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donaldson was charged with careless driving causing death<\/a>, which she defended at trial, claiming she was sunstruck, and, at the same time, an oncoming vehicle frightened her.<\/p>\n

However, Judge John Berseng found her guilty, finding there were signs of fatigue, and describing the decision to drive as \u201cflawed\u201d and one that led to \u201ctragic consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n

This week, Donaldson appeared for sentencing in the Rotorua District Court, where, through her lawyer, Roderick Mulgan, she sought a discharge without conviction.<\/p>\n

\"JadeJade Richards, 18, died after the vehicle she was in rolled on SH30 on New Year’s Day last year. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Mulgan said a conviction would end her aspirations to join the Australian army, something the now 20-year-old had been working towards since she was 13.<\/p>\n

The police opposed the application, pointing to her apparent lack of remorse.<\/p>\n

This prompted a discussion between Judge Bergseng and Mulgan over whether Donaldson had expressed remorse, or merely regret.<\/p>\n

The judge referred to victim impact statements read by family members<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Richards\u2019 twin brother said he had been waiting for her to return from Rhythm and Vines so he could help her unpack her bags and cook her dinner.<\/p>\n

Instead, he was visited by police who told him his sister had been killed in a crash.<\/p>\n

He spoke of seeing the wrecked car, his sister\u2019s blood, and her lifeless body in the morgue, all as things that he \u201ccannot unsee\u201d.<\/p>\n

Richards\u2019 older sister said she no longer enjoyed doing the things she and her sister, whom she referred to as her best friend, used to do, and the trauma of washing blood from her sister\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n

Richards\u2019 mother gave a detailed account of the day she learned her daughter had died, her struggles to cope, and the mental image of her daughter\u2019s \u201cbeautiful face lying dead in the morgue\u201d.<\/p>\n

All of Richards\u2019 family members spoke of the grief of losing her just as she was preparing to start university.<\/p>\n

The other theme was that Richards\u2019 family felt Donaldson had shown little remorse and had not taken responsibility.<\/p>\n

They all urged the judge not to grant a discharge without conviction.<\/p>\n

The judge noted that in Donaldson\u2019s affidavit, it was clear she regretted what had happened, but he thought it needed to go further.<\/p>\n

Richards\u2019 father, Mark Richards, told the judge it would have helped his family to see Donaldson take ownership.<\/p>\n

He said that while she may have written about her remorse in her affidavit, it was never verbalised or expressed directly to them.<\/p>\n

His voice cracked as he said, \u201cNot one of our family has ever seen a word from her\u201d, and said it seemed to have been dragged out for \u201cself-preservation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what hurts the most … It could have been a way different outcome if we got closure two years ago. We could have sat in a room and all just grieved together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JasmineJasmine Donaldson defended a charge of careless driving causing death, but was found guilty following a judge-alone trial. Photo \/ Kelly Makiha<\/p>\n

Donaldson\u2019s lawyer said that her pleading not guilty didn\u2019t mean she didn\u2019t accept she made a driving error, but she had had a right to test whether that error met a criminal threshold.<\/p>\n

When it came to sentencing, the judge said there was \u201cno doubt that Jasmine has suffered from knowing that her driving failure caused Jade\u2019s death\u201d.<\/p>\n

But other than an offer of $10,000 emotional harm reparation, there was \u201clittle that can be taken as an expression of remorse\u201d.<\/p>\n

She hadn\u2019t undertaken any driver training or voluntary work, for example.<\/p>\n

The judge said Donaldson\u2019s approach to expressing remorse was \u201clikely a consequence of her youth and her immaturity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I can\u2019t speak for Jade\u2019s family, it seems to me that the word \u2018sorry\u2019 would have gone a long way towards addressing the hurt that they feel,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

He weighed Donaldson\u2019s culpability as a driver and the consequences of a conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a mistake made by an 18-year-old driver,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Donaldson had been tired and shouldn\u2019t have driven, but she hadn\u2019t been \u201cbrazen\u201d; it was the \u201cproduct of youth\u201d and her limited driving experience.<\/p>\n

And there had been many \u201cwhat ifs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately for Jade, she was effectively in the wrong place at the wrong time because of the consequences of Jasmine\u2019s driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said it was clear a conviction would be an \u201cabsolute bar\u201d to entry into her chosen career path in the Australian military, which she was accepted into before the crash.<\/p>\n

Judge Bergseng granted the discharge without conviction, but Donaldson received a 10-month driving disqualification, was ordered to do a defensive driving course within four months, and was ordered to pay $10,000 in emotional harm reparation.<\/p>\n

However, the judge noted he had placed \u201cvery little weight\u201d on the reparation offer when considering the discharge application.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of all of this, Jasmine, there are no winners,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have heard what has been said [by Jade\u2019s family]. They would be very much helped by a very overt expression of remorse, no matter what might be the state of the relationship. I can\u2019t force that. That is a matter I leave with you and your counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donaldson was charged with careless driving causing death, which she defended at trial, claiming she was sunstruck, and,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15970,3549,5972,15969,87910,2082,27306,49028,3375,117,111,43,139,69,22138,1361,1339,1530],"class_list":["post-148561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-conviction","tag-crash","tag-day","tag-discharged","tag-donaldson","tag-for","tag-jade","tag-jasmine","tag-killed","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-richards","tag-that","tag-without","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}