It was a choice, not an accident.
That was the painful, infuriating reality that those mourning two young women tried to drill home repeatedly today as they took turns for more than an hour tearfully confronting drink driver Carl Edward John Reti at his Manukau District Court sentencing.
Reti, who turned 56 last weekend, was driving 160km/h in a 50km/h zone just moments before he slammed his Holden into the back of a Toyota Corolla containing sisters Crystal-Alizae Emery, 19, and Aria-Sativa Kapene, 24.
The South Auckland crash wedged the siblings’ vehicle underneath a truck.
Kapene, who had been driving, died almost immediately, while Emery remained trapped in the vehicle for almost an hour before succumbing to her injuries.
Reti’s blood alcohol level was more than triple the legal limit.
“This was not a random tragedy,” the victims’ older brother, Lazarus Emery, emphasised today as both he and the defendant wept.
“It was the result of a choice.
“You chose to drink, to get behind the wheel and to drive. Because of that choice, my sisters are gone forever. There is no forgiveness for what you have done.
“I hope you understand every day of your life the pain you have caused... This pain, this emptiness, this grief - this is the legacy you left for us.”
Reti was arrested along Takanini’s Great South Road last November after causing the crash about 12.20am on a Sunday.
He would later tell police he had consumed six Speights beers that night. An on-site test showed him to have 744 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. The legal limit for drivers aged 20 and over is 250mcg per litre of breath.
Crown prosecutor ʻAminiasi Kefu emphasised Reti had called an Uber earlier that night but decided later to drive himself to get cigarettes or food.
The Uber service, he said, shows “he was aware of the risk” and chose to ignore it.
Airbag sensors on the defendant’s car suggest he was driving 160km/h five seconds before the crash, and it was estimated he was still driving at 128km/h at the time of impact.
The sisters had been stationary at a stoplight and their car was just starting to move forward when the high-speed impact pushed their car under a refrigerated trailer being pulled by a truck in front of them.
“The impact shunted the Toyota forward, causing it to be crushed in between the Holden and the rear of the refrigerated trailer,” the agreed summary of facts states.
In interviews before sentencing, Reti quibbled with the authorities’ characterisation of the crash - noting that he had slowed down before impact and increased speed to try to pass another motorist.
Judge Nick Webby looked dimly upon the assertions, which he said showed a lack of remorse.
Whether he was driving 78km/h or 110km/h over the speed limit at the time of impact means little to the overall recklessness, the judge said, noting that he watched CCTV of his speed “that would only serve to create outrage” if played in open court.
“Having seen the CCTV footage ... it is difficult to comprehend your speed as anything but excessive,” he said.
Also sitting in the car was Kapene’s partner, Kimiora Hancy, who survived the crash with serious injuries, and now has a steel rod in his arm.
“Every day I wake up with pain,” he said in a written victim impact statement, explaining that it’s not always physical.
“I carry the physical scars, but the emotional and spiritual wounds run far deeper.”
An overflow crowd filled the courtroom gallery, with seats even taken up in the jury box, as the sisters were remembered.
Kapene, the older sibling, was a “social queen” remembered as sometimes ditzy but in the most endearing and best possible way. Her drive was balanced by her love for singing and dancing, and her smile could “light up the house across the street”.
Crystal-Alizae Emery, meanwhile, was a quiet and cheeky homebody who was a “mini-me” of her mother and always a comforting presence for her little brother. At just 19, she was starting to discover herself.
The two dreamed of entrepreneurship - starting a food truck together.
Both sisters looked after their mum, Philomena Emery, who has long been bedridden with encephalitis.
“They were more than daughters. They were my .... heartbeat,” the mother said in a written victim impact statement read aloud by her eldest son.
She sat in a wheelchair, staring Reti down and holding her son’s hand as he struggled through tears to complete the statement.
“Every time I close my eyes, I see their faces,” she wrote.
“Since that night I have been broken. My heart doesn’t beat the same. The pain sits in my chest like a stone. I love my girls so much, and you stole them from me.”
Like others, she asked the judge directly to view Reti’s actions as a choice rather than a mistake.
“You destroyed generations of love, hope and happiness...” she said, turning her attention to the defendant. “You chose to drink. You chose to drive. And that choice - that selfish-ass choice - stole everything from us.”
Defence lawyers Ian Tucker and Colin Mitchell came to court today with a letter of apology from their client and a certificate showing he has participated in an alcohol rehab programme.
But Judge Webby agreed with the Crown that it was all too little, too late.
He acknowledged the family’s grief, as well as the added trauma of having a closed-casket tangi because of the sisters’ injuries.
Reti, meanwhile, suffered only a small abrasion that appeared to be from his seatbelt, the judge recalled.
“It is not lost on me your offending has had a ... devastating impact,” he said.
While judges need to take into account the principles of rehabilitation and reintegration while determining sentences, in this case those considerations “must take a back seat to the principles of deterrence and denunciation”, he said.
With a maximum possible sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, the judge ordered a 7.5 year starting point before allowing a 25% reduction for his guilty pleas and modest reductions for his apology letter, rehabilitative efforts and previous good character.
The judge noted that Reti had received demerit points for exceeding the 100km/h speed limit in 2019 and 2021 but agreed they are now somewhat historic.
The reductions resulted in an end sentence of five years, with an order that Reti be disqualified from driving for an additional five years after the completion of his prison term.
Judge Webby also ordered Reti to pay $10,000 in emotional harm reparation - an amount that had been suggested by the defendant’s lawyers.
But the victims’ family wasn’t sure they wanted to accept any money from him, the court was told.
They weren’t interested in forgiveness, each person said in their victim impact statement. It was a sentiment repeated as he was escorted into custody.
“I hate you,” a person in the gallery yelled.
Reti didn’t respond.
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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