Keleesah Reweti, daughter of homicide victim Patrick Reweti, reacts after her father's killer, Chalton Lawson, was found not guilty of his murder on the grounds of insanity.
A grieving mother says she is “utterly disgusted” that the man who killed her son has been found not guilty of his murder on the grounds of insanity.
“There’s no justice. Not in this country anyway,” Pauline Dixon said after a court appearance in High Courtat Napier on Wednesday.
Her son Patrick Reweti, 49 was killed by Chalton Mason Lawson in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere on March 26, 2024.
The two men had never met before that day but were sitting in Reweti’s car with one of Lawson’s relatives. The relative was an old friend of Reweti.
Patrick Te Tini Reweti was found dead in a burnt-out car in Flaxmere.
The court was told that at the time he killed Reweti, Lawson was psychotic, suffering from hallucinations and hearing voices, brought on by long-term methamphetamine use.
He was using the drug every day.
Lawson was also found not guilty on insanity grounds for causing grievous bodily harm following an attack on a prison officer at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison in April 2024.
Lawson will be detained indefinitely as a special patient in a secure forensic unit.
Justice Gwyn’s order said he would be held there “until medical authorities are satisfied detention is no longer necessary”.
As Justice Gwyn announced her findings, members of Reweti’s whānau stood up from their seats in the public gallery and walked out of the court.
Lawson was not in court in person, but appeared from a secure unit on an audio-visual link where he spent most of the two-hour hearing rocking backwards and forwards in a chair behind a table.
‘Absolute disgrace’
Asked for her reaction outside the court, Reweti’s mother, Pauline Dixon, said she was “absolutely disgusted” at the result.
She said it was an “absolute disgrace”.
Earlier, she had delivered a victim impact statement to the court which said she was “emotionally broken” and deeply struggling.
“Patrick was loved beyond words. He is missed beyond measure,” she said.
Other family members made statements which described the slain man as honest, humble, reliable, hard-working, and his family’s breadwinner.
They said that when he was killed, he had been going around to see old friends to invite them to his coming 50th birthday party. Lawson’s relative had been a friend for many years.
Kaleesah Reweti outside court talking about her father Patrick Reweti, who was killed in 2024. Photo / Ric Stevens
Reweti’s daughter, Kaleesah Reweti, said outside the court she was also “really angry” at the outcome.
“My heart’s broken for my dad,” she said.
“I would like my father to be remembered as a kind, loving man, who was always giving,” she said.
“He was a man who would do anything for anyone, and I loved him so much.”
Other family members said they understood Lawson had been a 501 deportee from Australia. They questioned why his mental illness had not been identified and addressed when he was forced to return to New Zealand.
Catching up with an old friend
The summary of facts said before he was killed, Reweti, Lawson and Lawson’s relative had gone for a drive and parked up, where the old friends talked about when they were growing up.
They returned to Lawson’s place on Sunderland Drive, Flaxmere, and a short time later Lawson stabbed Reweti in the neck with a knife.
Reweti got out of the car and ran along the street before collapsing, bleeding profusely.
Lawson drove the car to where he was lying and put Reweti in the footwell of the back seat.
Dr Greg Young, one of four pyschiatrists who provided reports on Lawson, said he had interviewed Lawson several times and formed the view that he had a psychotic illness, which included hallucinations and false beliefs that seemed “entirely real”.
He said his assessment was that Lawson was “immersed” in these beliefs and hallucinations, and profoundly believed he was being persecuted.
Lawson believed he was being watched by these imaginary persecutors, and had got the knife to protect himself.
Justice Gwyn said she was satisfied that Lawson’s psychotic illness was a disease of the mind which would render him incapable under the Crimes Act.
He could not tell that what he was doing was morally wrong.
She made a formal finding that Lawson was insane at the time he committed the offences.
Patrick Reweti's family outside court. Photo / Ric Stevens
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 front-line experience as a probation officer.
