Khanye Te HueHue. Photo / Pool
The youth who fatally stabbed Christchurch teenager Zion Purukamu outside an Airbnb party has been sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
But the victim’s family say no sentence will ever compare to the life sentence they have to bear without their light, inspiration, and “little man”.
Khanye Eruera Harimate Te HueHue was 16 when he killed Zion during an altercation between several groups of partygoers.
He also stabbed and wounded two other teenagers.
The now-18-year-old was originally charged with murdering Zion and pleaded not guilty.
However, in November he admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The plea outraged Zion’s family, some of who erupted in anger in the courtroom.
As a result, extra police and security were present in court for sentencing this morning.
A row of police officers stood in a row along one side of the public gallery, blocking any contact between the family and supporters of Zion and his young killer.
The sentencing hearing, before Justice Rachel Dunningham, began with the reading of Victim Impact Statements.
Members of Zion’s family filled one side of the courtroom this morning to see his killer sentenced.
His father Adam Purukamu carried in a white box containing the slain teenager’s ashes, wearing a specially printed shirt with a photo of Zion on the front with the wording “my son, my heart”.
Others had similar shirts printed with words specific to their relationship with Zion - “my little brother” and “my baby” among them.
Zion’s mother Sharlene Kinley had her statement read first.
“My son was the best son in the world… he was always right beside me wherever I went,” she said.
“He loved his family and friends and always made sure everyone was okay.”
Kinley said Zion was a good boy who preferred to stay home than go out to parties.
In fact, the party where he died was only the second he had attended.
He had dreams of working, saving money to buy a car and a house and then get married and start his own family.
“He made me so proud of him,” Kinley said.
She spoke of being told he had been injured at the party and rushing to the hospital to see him.
“When we got there he had already died he was still warm… I wiped his last tear off his eye… I kept saying ‘please wake up son, I love you I need you’.
“But he didn’t wake up he just started going cold.”
Kinley then directed her words at Zion’s killer.
“You gave me a lifetime of heartbreak and pain… he was my baby and you took him away from me
“I couldn’t help him, I couldn’t save him… you took a piece of me I can never get back… the day you killed my son you killed me too.”
Adam Purukamu’s statement about his “little man” followed.
“The pain my family has experienced since Zion was taken from us is unbearable… I was so happy when we had him and he never ventured far… he was the light of our life and I cry for my boy every day.
“He was my little boy… it breaks my heart and soul, it’s so hard without him in our lives.
“He had planned out his future and he knew what he wanted to do.”
He also spoke directly to Te HueHue.
“We mourn for him every day… Zion was only 16 years old and thanks to your actions he never came home and he never will,” he said.
“I doubt that you realise how much your actions have impacted on our family… we will never forgive you for what you have done.”
Zion’s sisters read their own statements in court.
Amber Kinley-Purukamu said Zion was her “biggest protector and now my guardian angel”.
“Nothing can justify what you’ve done, she said.
“I could say you took the hearts and souls of us all but that would be an understatement... You took the love and light from our home and sent it away forever.
“Do you know what it’s like to forget the sound of your own brother’s voice?
“If there’s anything he deserved, it was to live… he was the biggest-hearted, kindest most loving boy I’ve ever met.”
Crystal Kinley-Purukamu said Zion “had a bright future ahead of him”.
“He wanted to make something of himself,” she said.
“That night was his first night out… all because he wanted to celebrate with his girlfriend... you weren’t invited to the party… all my brother did was look to protect his girlfriend… you don’t deserve to walk the streets again, you’ve showed no remorse.
“My brother would never have pulled out a deadly weapon on anyone.”
She spoke of finding out Zion had been killed.
“Imagine going to sleep at night and waking up to your parents’ broken voices… instantly feeling the pain the moment he is gone, no warning, no goodbyes.
“I saw red in the first moments in finding out what happened… but you were nothing to my brother so you are nothing to us.
“Your sentence will never be the life sentence we have to live without Zion.”
Zion’s girlfriend could not attend court but her statement was read.
“My world as I knew it will never be the same… losing my first love to such a cowardly act has absolutely destroyed my life,” she wrote.
“Zion was my everything, my safe place, he was the only one who really understood me.
The teenager said she had to leave Christchurch and her family because “inside I was falling apart”.
One of the boys wounded by Te HueHue told the court he was one of Zion’s best mates.
“I thought I was going to die that night,” he said.
“I felt to blame because I couldn’t save him and I lived… it made me feel suicidal.”
He said Zion was “a hero, a role model and the light” of his close friend group.
Other friends also wrote statements about the deep impact Zion’s death had on them.
“We sat there trying to save him, trying to save his life… I got a call that he was gone,” said one who was at the party.
“You killed my brother with no care… he was unarmed... What you did crushed Zion’s parent’s hearts.
“Just knowing every day I survived kills me.”
Another said: “I held my best friend tightly while his blood was gushing out”.
“I yelled out for help… I carried my bro inside... I could smell my bro’s blood on me.
“By the time I got to the hospital he was no longer on this earth.
“I loved Zion so much, he was my biggest inspiration.
I hate you for what you took away from me, I will never heal from the pain.”
When Te HueHue admitted the charge last year the police summary of facts was read, outlining how the fatal stabbing played out.
On August 13 last year, a small group of friends gathered at an Airbnb house on Medbury Terrace in the upmarket suburb of Fendalton to host a 17th birthday party.
The birthday girl sent invites out on Instagram and people began arriving through the evening.
By 10pm, around 80 people were inside and outside the house.
The three victims – Zion and two friends, one aged just 14 and the other 17 – were with a group of associates who called themselves the ‘Rowley Boys’ - as a number of them are from Rowley Avenue in Hoon Hay.
Te HueHue arrived with two associates - an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old – at about 10pm. They did not know the Rowley Boys.
At some point in the night, Zion and a friend confronted Te HueHue about kissing a girl they considered too drunk and told him to leave.
He refused and there was a fight on the deck of the house between Zion and a number of the Rowley Boys.
They chased him down the street and into a neighbouring property where they continued to fight.
One of them demanded Te HueHue’s Louis Vuitton bag that he was wearing and took it.
The fight continued in the driveway of the party house.
At some stage, Te HueHue removed a knife from his clothing and stabbed Zion in the abdomen and back.
The stab wound to his abdomen pierced Zion’s aorta which proved to be fatal.
He staggered across the road and fell to the ground.
The 14-year-old rushed Zion and was stabbed in the chest, piercing a lung.
Te HueHue ran towards Clyde Rd.
As he passed a 17-year-old who was not involved in the fight, he stabbed him in the chest, causing a serious laceration to his spleen.
Partygoers phoned emergency services and administered first aid to the three victims.
Zion was carried inside where they tried CPR before paramedics took over and raced him to hospital where he was pronounced dead soon afterwards.
Afterwards, Te HueHue “commented to various people that the victims deserved it”, the summary says, but adds, “although it is accepted that he could not have known at that stage that Zion would die”.
Te HueHue later admitted to police that he stabbed all three but stated it was in self-defence.
Crown Prosecutor Deidre Elsmore told the court Te HueHue’s offending was “gratuitous” and the result of him being “angry and embarrassed”.
She sought a prison sentence of 12 years for the killer.
Defence lawyer Pip Hall KC said his client “heard and acknowledged” the Victim Impact Statements and the pain that he had caused.
“Nobody should die at this age,” he said.
He said Te HueHue accepted he would be going to prison but a term of 12 years was “excessive”.
He also claimed Te HueHue was “outnumbered” by people wearing youth gang “colours”.
“He took flight when he was confronted but the victims and their affiliates pursued him... caught up with him on Medbury Tce and assaulted him,” he said.
“He had no ability to escape and he was clearly outnumbered, at that point he was subjected to an aggravated robbery and he was being assaulted... it was against that background he presented the knife.
“It was a dangerous situation, he was outnumbered, there was a gang element.. he resorted to the knife to protect himself.”
Hall said the presentation of the knife was “justified” but it was reflected in the guilty plea that Te HueHue should not have used to stab any of the three victims.
He said the element of self-defence was “significant” and while Te HueHue’s actions were “impulsive” they were understandable in the circumstances.
Hall said substance abuse, abandonment trauma, vulnerability to gang involvement and undiagnosed ADHD all contributed to where Te HueHue found himself today.
He sought a sentence that reflected those challenges.
Justice Dunningham considered a plethora of information - from the Crown, defence and presentence reports outlining the killer’s background and lifestyle - before handing down Te HueHue’s sentence.
She also considered a range of similar cases and the element of self-defence.
“I want to hold you accountable for what you have done, I want to promote in you a sense of responsibility... but I also want to assist in your rehabilitation and reintegration,” she said.
Justice Dunningham gave Te HueHue credit for his age, “difficulties” in terms of his ADHD and “impulsivity” which could have been “exacerbated” by meth and alcohol use.
While there were factors in his upbringing that were negative - including his attraction to the Black Power gang - his mother and grandmother did everything they could to provide him a stable and nurturing upbringing.
She said she could not be satisfied that he had any real remorse.
During the hearing, some of Zion’s family and supporters shouted out at Te HueHue - and rejected some of his lawyer’s comments about the offending.
Justice Dunningham threatened to adjourn proceedings until there was silence and urged people to remain calm and quiet “for Zion”.
When the final sentence was handed down - five years and six months for the manslaughter and concurrent terms of more than two and three years for the wounding - some of Zion’s family started shouting.
They hurled abuse at the killer as he was led to the cells and at his family as they left court - protected by police.
One man shouted repeatedly “Blood gang” and confronted police taunting them and swearing at them.
“The justice system is shit,” one woman shouted.
“You’re letting people f**king kill people,” said another.
One orca was spotted closer to shore, and then another big fin popped up.