{"id":331889,"date":"2026-03-16T06:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/331889\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T06:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:38:08","slug":"rotorua-man-johdeci-te-kani-admits-manslaughter-of-mate-fabien-takerei-white-in-high-speed-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/331889\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua man Johdeci Te Kani admits manslaughter of mate Fabien Takerei-White in high-speed crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Te Kani and his passenger, Fabien Takerei-White<\/a>, weren\u2019t wearing seatbelts and were \u201cejected\u201d from the car.<\/p>\n

Takerei-White ended up in the middle of the road, near the car, while Te Kani was thrown further.<\/p>\n

Te Kani was airlifted to Tauranga Hospital<\/a> with serious injuries. However, Takerei-White, 18, died at the scene. <\/p>\n

An autopsy found he died from severe head and abdominal injuries.<\/p>\n

Now, in the High Court at Rotorua<\/a>, Te Kani has pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the death of his passenger.<\/p>\n

\"OnOn March 16, 2026, in the High Court at Rotorua, Johdeci Te Kani pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Photo \/ Hannah Bartlett<\/p>\n

Drinking, drugs, and early-hours driving<\/p>\n

The court heard Te Kani and a group of mates had been at a house on Hamurana Rd, Rotorua, and, by about 3am, were making their way in two cars to Tauranga.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d all been drinking alcohol, and Te Kani only had a learner driver\u2019s licence.<\/p>\n

The car he was drivinghad one functioning headlight, worn rear brakes, and its right front tyre was worn on the inner edge and below warrant of fitness standards. <\/p>\n

When the two cars left Hamurana Rd, the Starlet was in front, and a passenger in the following vehicle described Te Kani\u2019s manner of driving as \u201cspeeding up on the straights and then slowing down on the corners where he would wait for the second vehicle to catch up\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roadworks on State Highway 33 meant there was a temporary 30km\/h speed limit near Okere Falls.<\/p>\n

However, road workers observed the two cars go through the site at speed, failing to stop signs or directions of workers.<\/p>\n

The cars were travelling at about 80km\/h.<\/p>\n

A short time later, they both crashed.<\/p>\n

The Serious Crash Unit found that at the time they crashed, the Toyota Mark-X had been in the lead, with Te Kani\u2019s Starlet following.<\/p>\n

The Starlet was estimated, based on the yaw marks left behind, to be travelling between 134km\/h and 141km\/h at the time it lost control.<\/p>\n

A blood specimen found Te Kani had 57mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, and was within the high-risk range of cannabis. <\/p>\n

The police summary of facts noted Te Kani\u2019s blood alcohol level was taken about four hours after the incident, and would have \u201ccertainly been higher\u201d at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n

The car had extensive damage, including the driver\u2019s seat being bent rearward and inward, the front passenger\u2019s seat bent rearward, and the top of the windscreen and front of the roof collapsed inward.<\/p>\n

Te Kani had pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, and a High Court trial was due to begin this morning.<\/p>\n

However, Te Kani, who is now 20, admitted the charge in court today, where Justice Simon Mount acknowledged \u201cthe important step\u201d he had taken.<\/p>\n

Justice Mount also acknowledged the presence of Takerei-White\u2019s wh\u0101nau and Te Kani\u2019s wh\u0101nau in court, and the \u201ctragic circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"FabianFabian Takerei-White, 18, died in a crash on State Highway 33 on December 21, 2022. <\/p>\n

Te Kani\u2019s lawyer, Max Simpkins, asked for a referral to be made to restorative justice.<\/p>\n

He did not seek bail for his client, but did ask for a pre-sentence report to include appendices, which would look at home detention options, though he said he recognised the sentence was unlikely to fall within home detention range, even with the defendant\u2019s youth taken into account.<\/p>\n

Simpkins indicated he was likely to be seeking alcohol and drug reports, and possibly a cultural report, before sentencing in April.<\/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":"Both Te Kani and his passenger, Fabien Takerei-White, weren\u2019t wearing seatbelts and were \u201cejected\u201d from the car. Takerei-White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[66365,16489,1643,3944,10474,3549,19552,178176,20486,78,178175,119948,5836,5158,15035,32897,130,111,43,139,69,1118,14734,25261,1327,7248,178177,8690,5163,131,14344,1316,102],"class_list":["post-331889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-130kmh","tag-admits","tag-bank","tag-car","tag-control","tag-crash","tag-driver","tag-fabien","tag-highspeed","tag-in","tag-johdeci","tag-kani","tag-lost","tag-man","tag-manslaughter","tag-mate","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-passenger","tag-rolled","tag-rotorua","tag-seat","tag-takereiwhite","tag-te","tag-teen","tag-than","tag-travelling","tag-when","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331889","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=331889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}