Brian Baldwin sentenced for stabbing Auckland Transit bus driver at Mt Roskill stop

A man who stabbed an Auckland bus driver with a hunting-style buck knife just below his heart had a history of unprovoked knife attacks - including the stabbing of another man in the back at Auckland City Hospital - the court was told today as he was sentenced yet again.

But in an outburst to the judge, New Lynn resident Brian Steven Baldwin, 64, said he was too drunk on the night of the most recent stabbing to have formed any mal-intent.

“I was pretty much wanting to maybe defend myself, but I was so intoxicated I didn’t know what was going on,” Baldwin told Judge Nick Webby as he stood in the dock at Auckland District Court this afternoon.

“I am sorry for what happened. It was just a dumb, drunken thing. I’d take it back if I could. I was beyond drunk.”

The judge replied that intoxication is not a defence under the law. He ordered a sentence of two years and 10 months’ imprisonment, of which over 400 days have already been served while awaiting trial.

Baldwin appeared to have been furious over his bus pass not working just before lunging at the driver in March 2023, according to court documents.

“The Hop card either declined or did not work and after multiple attempts to tag on, [the driver] told Mr Baldwin that it was all right and that he can just sit down,” the agreed summary of facts for the case states.

The defendant, described as intoxicated when he got on the bus in Mt Eden, tried to get off a few minutes later in nearby Mt Roskill and was told by the driver not to bother when he again had trouble tagging off.

“Do you want a bash?” he responded to the driver in what was described in court documents as an aggressive and seemingly unprovoked challenge to fight. “Do you want to go?”

Both men stepped off the bus, with Baldwin grabbing the knife from a sheath as he walked out the back door.

“The two men came face-to-face on the sidewalk and Mr Baldwin lunged at [the driver] with his knife and a scuffle ensued between them,” court documents state. “During the scuffle, Mr Baldwin suddenly stabbed [the driver] in the left side of his torso below his heart.”

A bus driver was stabbed on White Swan Rd in Mt Roskill in March 2023. The passenger who did the stabbing has now been sentenced. Photo / Google Maps

The driver then grabbed a piece of wood from a fence and followed the passenger down the road trying to disarm him. Baldwin again tried to stab the driver but the victim was able to dodge the blow. Eventually, authorities said, the defendant “surrendered by tossing his knife to the roadside” and was arrested a short time later.

The driver was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Baldwin was initially charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which carries a sentence of up to 14 years’ imprisonment, but he instead pleaded guilty shortly before his trial to wounding with intent to injure, which is punishable by up to seven years.

Defence lawyer Shane Kilian also emphasised his client’s intoxication, which he said had contributed to his client’s poor decisions that day. He noted that the Auckland Transport driver voluntarily got out of the bus and could have driven off before the knife was produced.

But the judge noted that only Baldwin knew when he challenged the driver to a fight that he had a knife. The victim had a “degree of vulnerability” due to his job in public transit, the judge noted, reminding Baldwin that the “serious level of violence” was unprovoked.

And it was far from the first time Baldwin has been in trouble for his usage of a knife, the judge noted, reading off a long list of prior convictions dating back to 1997.

Most of the convictions involved possession of a knife in a public place, but they also included an aggravated assault with a stabbing weapon in 2011 and a particularly relevant conviction in 2018 for wounding with intent to injure for which Baldwin received a four-year prison sentence.

That incident, involving the hospital stabbing, would have been used as propensity evidence had the bus stabbing case gone to trial, the judge noted.

During the incident, which occurred in October 2016, Baldwin and the victim were both homeless and had ongoing issues with each other - often exchanging insults. They were having another argument on the fifth floor of the hospital near the public gift shop area that afternoon when Baldwin pulled out a 20cm knife and lunged at the victim, the judge noted today.

Baldwin initially missed and the other man threw a cup of coffee at him. They then separated, but Baldwin was still stewing.

“You ran towards him and stabbed him once in the back with a knife,” the judge recounted, explaining that the wound required emergency surgery and the removal of the victim’s lacerated kidney.

The victim was initially listed as in critical condition but his condition improved after surgery.

“Your history demonstrates a propensity for not only carrying lethal weapons but using the potentially lethal weapons,” Judge Webby said.

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.