{"id":555889,"date":"2026-08-02T08:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T08:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/555889\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T08:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T08:29:09","slug":"family-forgive-geramy-pascua-after-whangarei-drunk-driving-crash-kills-rondy-sepaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/555889\/","title":{"rendered":"Family forgive Geramy Pascua after Whang\u0101rei drunk\u2011driving crash kills Rondy Sepaya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pascua was sentenced this week at the Whang\u0101rei District Court<\/a> before Judge Gene Tomlinson for driving with excess breath alcohol causing the 38-year-old\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Despite the tragic loss for Sepaya\u2019s family, they chose forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe life he envisioned for our family has been interrupted, leaving us with uncertainty about how we will continue. I understand that what happened was a tragic accident,\u201d Sepaya\u2019s father, Roderick Sepaya, told the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the offender, who was also my son\u2019s friend, I have chosen to forgive him. I know that he too must carry the burden of what happened. <\/p>\n

\u201cI pray that God will give me the strength, the peace, the comfort to endure this loss and to continue moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sepaya had been working as a labourer on a Ruatangata farm since 2023, when Pascua joined his team in 2025.<\/p>\n

After finishing their day on February 14, 2026, they sat down to drink whisky together.<\/p>\n

About 7.30pm, Pascua drove himself and three others, including Sepaya, to another farm where they continued drinking.<\/p>\n

The whisky ran out and Pascua drove to a liquor store, purchased another bottle of whisky and returned to the neighbouring farm.<\/p>\n

At 10.15pm, Pascua, who was on a Filipino licence, and his group drove back to their farm.<\/p>\n

The two passengers in the rear were wearing seatbelts and Pascua claimed Sepaya, who was sitting in the front, was not.<\/p>\n

As Pascua drove at 60km\/h along Knight Rd he failed to make a slight right-hand bend, rolling the car into a ditch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere can be no more serious outcome from a drink-driving crash than killing someone, taking from this world and taking from them all they had,\u201d Judge Tomlinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSepaya\u2019s injuries were severe head injuries, he died at the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pascua told police he hadn\u2019t realised New Zealand<\/a> had a legal alcohol limit for drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not accept that, and if it is true, then I have some fundamental questions about the information provided to you when you arrived in this country on your work visa, and why you would expect that the law in relation to drinking and driving was any different in this country to your own,\u201d Judge Tomlinson said.<\/p>\n

\"RondyRondy Sepaya’s family addressed the court at sentencing. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Pascua recorded 141mcg of alcohol per litre of breath, with the legal limit 80mcg.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were too drunk, so drunk and to be unfit to drive is beyond doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pascua pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.<\/p>\n

The Crown sought three years\u2019 imprisonment but accepted Pascua was remorseful and a 25% discount was appropriate.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Adam Pell argued two years and eight months was appropriate and, with discounts, would be in the range for home detention.<\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson acknowledged the grace, compassion and forgiveness Sepaya\u2019s family had shown.<\/p>\n

\u201cRondy was a lucky man to have a family with such open hearts and real compassion. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Mr Pascua is extremely lucky to have been the beneficiary of your generous hearts, of your forgiveness for what I imagine for me would be unforgivable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson was satisfied Pascua was \u201ca properly remorseful man\u201d and was \u201cunlikely to do something so dangerous, so stupid, so criminal ever again\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have never offended either here or in the Philippines. I\u2019m satisfied that this conduct on the face of it appears out of character and is unlikely to be repeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have done, Mr Pascua, a terrible, terrible thing. But having done a terrible, terrible thing and taken from your friend all that he had and taken from his family the time with him, you immediately owned that conduct and did everything you could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pascua was sentenced to 10 months\u2019 home detention and offered to pay $5000 in emotional harm reparation, which was accepted by the judge.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n

Join NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pascua was sentenced this week at the Whang\u0101rei District Court before Judge Gene Tomlinson for driving with excess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,3549,273089,2109,228853,273087,89404,111,43,139,69,273088,161478,161480,1869],"class_list":["post-555889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-crash","tag-drunkdriving","tag-family","tag-forgive","tag-geramy","tag-kills","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pascua","tag-rondy","tag-sepaya","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555889","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=555889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}