A Napier man who yesterday admitted the murder of his ex-partner had as a teenager been jailed for the armed robbery and kidnapping of the ex-partner of another girlfriend twice his age.
The man is 29-year-old Chazz Hayden Hall, who in a surprise High Court appearance yesterday pleaded guilty to a charge of murdering daughter's mother and plunket nurse Victoria Foster at her Westshore home on the night of October 26, 2015.
He sports a permanent disability from injuries received when shot by police on the main road through Clive about 11pm at the end of a chase which followed the killing.
Hall denied the charge of murder in a court appearance last February and a trial was to have taken place in the High Court in Napier next month.
But in a video-link appearance from prison yesterday, he pleaded guilty and also admitted charges of dangerous use of a firearm he was reported to have fired during the chase, threatening to kill police, unlawful use of a firearm and dangerous driving.
Police have not publicly revealed how Ms Foster died and yesterday, Justice Karen Clark QC, also appearing via AVL as members of Ms Foster's family sat in the court in Napier, made an interim order suppressing details.
The order was made pending sentencing which she scheduled of March 8, with Hall expected to face a life sentence and the Crown expected to seek a minimum non-parol term of at least 15 years, in line with other recent sentencings for murder. No speculation was made by either Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly or defence counsel Russell Fairbrother QC during yesterday's brief sitting.
It had been reported in the days after the death that Miss Foster was found dead about 9pm at her home in a block of units off The Esplanade.
Police spotted a car driven by Hall in Central Hastings about 9.45pm, road spikes were laid by police in at least one stretch of road to stop the car, but it continued with flattened tyres and at least three shots being fired from the vehicle before it was stopped after turning back through Clive where it ended and Hall was shot by police near the intersection of State Highway 2 and Mill Rd.
Hall was just 18 in April 2005 when he used a shotgun to abduct a man from his home in a plot hatched by a 38-year-old woman to humiliate her ex-partner by dumping him in a forest dressed only in his underpants.
The man had arrived home to be confronted by Hall who was wearing a balaclava, and was bound and then bundled into his own car and driven towards the Kaweka Ranges. The man freed his hands during the trip, stabbed the woman with her knife and fled into the bush, fracturing a vertebrae when he fell over a Bluff.
The pair later admitted charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated wounding, Hall being sentenced to six-and-a-half years' jail, which was reduced by 12 months in the Court of Appeal where judges agreed his sentence should have been two years less than that of the woman who, the judges agreed, had taken advantage of his age, psychological condition and vulnerability after they had met in a psychiatric unit.
Victim's friend hoping for closure
One of Victoria Foster's close friends Renne-Lee Hunt yesterday said she is unsure what Chazz Hayden Hall's new guilty plea will mean for the future but still finds the loss "devastating".
"All I know is that it will be a relief to no longer attend court dates and to finally be able to mourn and remember Vic without the weight of the case or the constant thoughts of what next."
Miss Hunt said although the past year and a half has been hard without Ms Foster it has been "even harder" knowing it was not over.
"I guess we're hoping for closure and I hope that this change of plea brings that once the sentencing is over." Miss Hunt had previously set up a Givealittle page to raise funds in support of Miss Foster's then 5 year-old daughter. On the page, which raised a total of $18,658.20, Ms Hunt wrote Ms Foster was a "strong, bright, caring, beautiful, fun person" who worked hard to provide the best life she could for herself and her daughter.
Ms Hunt said yesterday's change of plea doesn't change the way herself and others feel about their loss. "Either way it doesn't change how we feel, we love her immensely, think of her daily and miss her every second."