Cannabis-impaired driver Alexander Kerr jailed over Havelock North crash that killed Wade Crosbie

Wade William Crosbie (inset), 19, died when a car in which he was a passenger crashed down a bank in Havelock North on January 3, 2025. Photo / Supplied/Jack Riddell

If you kill someone when driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, expect to go to jail.

That was the message delivered by a judge on Friday when he sent a 20-year-old man with no previous convictions to prison after a crash that killed one of his friends and severely injured another.

The Napier District Court was told Alexander Lucas Kerr had cannabis in his system when he crashed his 2004 Honda Accord in a semi-rural part of Havelock North on the evening of January 2 this year.

One of his passengers, Wade William Crosbie, 19, died at the scene.

Another passenger, Taidgh McMahon, also 19 at the time, suffered serious spinal injuries and appeared in court in a wheelchair to tell Kerr he had forgiven him.

Wade William Crosbie, 19, was killed in a car crash in Havelock North on January 2, 2025. Photo / Supplied

Judge Russell Collins said Kerr had in his system almost twice the level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound in cannabis, which had been deemed “high risk” under the Land Transport Act.

He said a deterrent to driving while drugged should be “embedded” in the whole community and imposed a prison sentence of two years and three months.

‘Expect to go to jail’

Judge Collins said if people asked the question, “What would happen if I killed someone through driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol?”, the answer should be, “Expect to go to jail”.

Members of Crosbie’s family said they were surprised by the prison sentence after Kerr’s lawyer, Matthew Phelps, argued for a sentence of home detention.

But Crosbie’s mother, Michelle Thompson, said outside the court there was a reason why Judge Collins had imposed the prison term.

“It’s a death,” she said. “I hope that it will teach him, and others.”

Earlier, Michelle Thompson and Wade’s brother, Mark Thompson, read victim impact statements to the court in which they remembered Crosbie as kind, thoughtful, caring and endlessly generous.

“Losing Wade has left an emptiness that words can’t fully capture,” Mark Thompson said.

He said the family is suffering grief that “simply is unbearable”.

Kerr had pleaded guilty to two charges – one of causing injury and one of causing death while the level of THC in his blood exceeded the “high risk” level.

In calculating the sentence, Judge Collins began with a starting point of 54 months in prison after hearing submissions from Phelps and Crown prosecutor Amber Hutton.

He then applied discounts of 20% for Kerr’s guilty pleas, 15% for his youth, 5% for allowing his victims to be heard through the restorative justice process, and 10% for his rehabilitative efforts and prospects.

The 50% discount from the starting point resulted in an end sentence of 27 months in prison.

Judge Russell Collins sentenced Alexander Kerr in the Napier District Court. Photo / Jason Oxenham

This was above the two-year threshold at which home detention could be considered as an alternative.

Kerr was also disqualified from driving for five years.

Judge Collins said Kerr had been driving with passengers in the car in breach of his restricted licence.

He lost control when approaching a corner on the semi-rural Foster Lane while driving at 72-74km/h.

The vehicle rotated clockwise before careering off the road, across a grass verge and into a gully.

Used cannabis from age 16

Judge Collins said Kerr had been using cannabis since he was 16 years old.

“You had been breaking the law on a regular basis for some time,” the judge said.

The morning-after scene in Foster Lane, Havelock North, where Alexander Kerr's car left the road and rolled into a gully. Photo / Jack Riddell.

McMahon said he had spent five months in the Burwood spinal unit in Christchurch after the crash, but told the court he had forgiven Kerr.

He hoped one day they would reconnect and resume being friends.

“I don’t want to live my life with animosity, or see him go to jail,” he said.

Outside the court, McMahon said he was “gutted” by the sentence and felt home detention would have been appropriate.

But Mark Thompson said his family felt Crosbie’s absence “every single day” and would carry the grief for the rest of their lives.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.