When police caught up to Eru Andrew Stevens on aSouth Auckland bus on September 9 last year, he was suffering a severe schizophrenic episode, a court was told this week as the 58-year-old, long-time criminal returned to court for his latest sentencing.
Stevens’ mental health remained in such a deteriorated state after his arrest that he missed some of his initial court appearances and there was talk of finding him a bed at the Mason Clinic lockdown psychiatric facility. But treatment over the past year while in custody eventually improved his state to the point where he was able to instruct his lawyer.
He agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge earlier this year.
“It’s not realistic,” defence lawyer Jonathan Hudson acknowledged this week of the prospect of his client receiving a community-based sentence, adding that schizophrenia has “been quite prominent in his life for a number of years” and had been the main driver of his repeat offending.
Court documents state Stevens walked in through the front entrance of SkyCity Casino at 12.26pm on the day of the robbery and walked straight to the main gaming floor on level 2 while holding a folded high-vis jacket.
Police released this photo of Eru Andrew Stevens after seeking his whereabout in 2019.
He then cut the queue at the main cage counter where cash was dispersed and handed a female employee a note.
Another employee, realising what was happening, pushed a security button under the counter. The casino security team called the cage and he tried to explain the dilemma while also placating Stevens.
“At the same time, [he] bent down to where the money was kept and asked the defendant if he wanted $50 or $20 notes,” documents state. “The defendant did not respond.
“[The male employee] picked up a bundle of $50 notes tied together with rubber bands worth $50,000, and placed the bundle on the counter.”
Stevens initially walked away without collecting the cash before turning around several seconds later and putting the stash under his jacket. He left the casino at 12.32pm, six minutes after he had entered.
Although the heist was initially successful, police didn’t have much of a whodunit on their hands. Stevens, who was listed in court documents as living in Auckland Central but having no fixed address, was already “well known to local staff”, Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Armstrong said at the time. He didn’t wear a disguise and the incident was caught on CCTV.
Stevens was arrested the following day in Papakura.
No weapon was ever seen on camera or found, Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick assured followers on social media prior to Stevens’ arrest.
“I am told this incident reflects no threat to the public,” she wrote. “The suspect is known to authorities and while jarring for staff (whose welfare I can confirm is being looked after) I understand no weapon - threatened or otherwise - actually materialised.”
‘Extremely unwell’
Stevens initially faced up to 14 years’ imprisonment after police charged him with aggravated robbery, a charge which reflects the use of a weapon. But he instead pleaded guilty to non-aggravated robbery, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.
“You have, of course, previously appeared before the court,” Manukau District Court Judge Clare Bennett said during the hearing as she weighed what sentence to impose. “Your situation is a little bit complicated, Mr Stevens, because you have an extensive mental health history.
“At the time of your arrest you were extremely unwell because of your schizophrenia.”
Police released this photo of Eru Andrew Stevens in 2002, after he escaped custody at the Auckland District Court.
The schizophrenia appears to have been made worse because he had refused treatment, she said, referring to several mental health reports provided to the court ahead of the hearing. They provided “a window into your ongoing struggle” and how it related to his longtime involvement with the criminal justice system.
While he wasn’t so insane that he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong - which would be the basis for a not guilty by reason of insanity finding - his condition could be used as a mitigating factor when determining his sentence, the judge said.
She determined he should have a starting point of three-and-a-half years for the robbery before deducting 25% for his guilty plea and 20% for mental health.
“It’s clear that you have suffered mental health issues for a very long period of time,” she said of the deduction. “That is not your fault. It is an illness.”
But she also uplifted the sentence by four months to account for prior convictions for robbery, aggravated robbery and burglary. The end sentence, after all of the deductions and additions, was two years and three months’ imprisonment.
He was also convicted and discharged for breaching prior release conditions.
Because Stevens has already been in custody for over a year, he is likely to go before the Parole Board before Christmas, his lawyer said.
Dangerous, not to be approached
Stevens first ended up in the media spotlight in 2002, after he and a fellow remand prisoner escaped from a security van in an Auckland District Court loading bay area one Monday morning.
He remained at large for two days before police caught up to him on Auckland Central’s Queen St.
He was going for a stroll after a meal at the Methodist City Mission, police said at the time.
Stevens, who had been set to appear in court on aggravated robbery and grievous bodily harm charges, was described by police at the time as “dangerous”. Police again warned that Stevens should not be approached in 2019, when they released his mugshot and said he was being sought for an unspecified reason.
Four years earlier, in December 2015, police had released a CCTV still of Stevens in the act of robbing a Pt Chevalier Kiwibank Post Shop site. They didn’t at that time know that it was him in the still but he was taken into custody just weeks later after he was caught in the act of robbing the same location a second time.
Eru Andrew Stevens was sentenced to three years and 10 months' imprisonment in 2016 for twice robbing the same Kiwibank Post Shop in Pt Chevalier a year earlier. This CCTV still of the first robbery was released by police before Stevens was identified.
During the sentencing that followed in June 2017, Auckland District Court judge Nevin Dawson referred to the need to take Stevens’ mental health into account.
Stevens had first targeted the bank at 8.45am on November 27, 2015.
“You queued in line with other customers inside the Kiwibank Post Shop until customers in front of you had been served,” Judge Dawson said in 2016, reciting the agreed facts of the case. “You then placed a black bag on the counter and told the teller to give you all the money in the till and safe as you had a bomb in the bag.
“You carried out this threat in a quiet voice so other customers inside the building would not hear. No bomb or weapon was seen or produced.”
But he pressed his luck by returning again on December 18 that year, this time using the self-service desk to write a note that was passed to the teller.
“I have a gun. Pass money over,” it read.
Auckland District Court Judge Nevin Dawson. Photo / Jason Oxenham
That time, he ran out of the store with $1185. But bystanders intervened, yelling out about the robbery as Stevens tried to get into a waiting taxi that he then abandoned. A second bystander then stepped in.
“While members of the public tried to hold on to you, you pulled a large black item from your person which was identified as a knife,” Judge Dawson said. “Both members of the public stepped back from you, fearing they would be injured. You continued then to run along Pt Chevalier Road and were apprehended nearby by police officers.”
He later pleaded guilty to robbery, aggravated robbery and aggravated assault.
Judge Dawson indicated that deterrence was at the front of his mind during the sentencing, but so was rehabilitation in light of Stevens’ mental health.
His end sentence of three years and 10 months’ imprisonment was delivered with a slight note of scepticism about his future prospects.
“The probation report indicates that you are assessed as posing a medium risk of harm to others,” Judge Dawson noted. “It also assessed you as having a low likelihood of re-offending which I find somewhat surprising given your very extensive history of offending.”
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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