Members of an Auckland family who were targeted in a terrifying and seemingly random armed home invasion – resulting in one member needing reconstructive surgery – say life has not been the same since.
“Are those people coming back?” two children who were in the Flat Bush house on the night of July 25, 2024, keep asking their parents.
The slightest noise at night causes panic and their once-carefree childhood has been taken from them, the children’s mother said.
Now one of the men who meted out the violence, a recidivist robber who punched the children’s father with knuckle-dusters as he demanded access to a non-existent safe, has been returned to prison.
“We’re just normal people,” one of Jahzaia Kenny’s victims said in a written statement to the court – recited by Judge David McNaughton as Kenny returned to a Manukau District Court dock for sentencing.
“We work hard. We live quietly.
“Now we live in constant fear and anxiety.”
Court documents outline a night of terror for the family that began around 10.10pm with an aggressive knock on their door.
Kenny, wearing a balaclava, was standing outside with the knuckledusters while a masked, unknown associate carried a sawn-off shotgun. Another unknown associate waited in the car, serving as the getaway driver.
The duo asked to use the toilet as the father, who works in the banking industry, looked suspiciously out the window. The resident and his wife called the police three times over the following six minutes, but Kenny and his associate persisted – kicking in the door and setting off the home’s security alarm.
“Where’s the safe? Where’s the cash?” Kenny’s partner yelled at the couple as he pointed the shotgun at them.
When the residents denied having a safe or cash, Kenny lashed out with the knuckle-dusters – fracturing the man’s eye socket - while his mate bashed the man over the head with the butt of his gun.
They ordered the couple to turn off the security alarm.
“Don’t play tricks!” Kenny yelled, while his associate pointed the gun at the man’s head and threatened: “I’ll f***ing kill you!”
They fled the home after stealing the man’s $500 watch, their bank cards and tens of thousands of dollars worth of the woman’s jewellery.
Police arrived at the couple’s home 14 minutes after the first call for help, but by that time Kenny and his partners were gone. One hour later, authorities found the abandoned getaway car 700 metres away.
In a written victim impact statement to the court, the family told Judge McNaughton that they initially feared the man would lose his eye as a result of the attack. He was unable to work for more than a month.
The house now resembles a fortress, with security cameras, an electric gate and guard dogs. But the feeling of safety they had prior to the attack remains elusive, they said.
This is not the New Zealand they used to know, the woman said.
The man said he wouldn’t forget the incident even if he tried. He suffers extreme insomnia and colleagues, not knowing the backstory, often comment on his scarred face, he said.
In addition to the fractured eye socket, he suffered a large head wound from being hit with the gun stock and needed nine stitches to repair various parts of his face.
“He was discharged later that morning at 7.11am, due to overcrowding within the Middlemore Hospital emergency department, but with a planned follow-up for reconstructive maxillofacial surgery of his orbital floor fracture,” court documents state.
When Kenny was arrested for aggravated robbery two months later, he denied any involvement in the incident. But police had already gathered some compelling evidence against him.
CCTV footage from the neighbourhood helped police quickly identify the car used by the bandits.
A little more investigation revealed that the car had belonged to Kenny’s half-brother, who was in prison at the time of the robbery so couldn’t have participated.
More CCTV footage and banking records would show Kenny using the same car at a Te Atatu petrol station on the same day as the robbery.
While executing a search warrant at Kenny’s West Auckland home in September last year, police found a balaclava, knuckle-dusters, a semi-automatic shotgun and bullets.
During a subsequent police interview, Kenny said he could not remember what he was doing on the night in question. But he was sure he hadn’t been using his brother’s white Nissan Sentra, which he had only driven once or twice after his brother first got it “a long time ago”, he said.
He revised his statement after police showed him CCTV footage suggesting otherwise but maintained his not guilty plea until July this year.
Even after pleading guilty, he sought to minimise his involvement, claiming in a pre-sentencing interview with probation to have been the getaway driver who did not go inside the house.
But that did not match the facts of the case that he had agreed to, the judge said, suggesting a disputed facts hearing might be necessary. Kenny then admitted he had been in the home with the knuckle-dusters.
“You say this is not something that you organised and planned – you came along for the ride, essentially to make some money,” Judge McNaughton noted.
Kenny faced up to 14 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated robbery charge and up to four years each for the gun and ammo found during the search of his home.
Both sides agreed that eight years’ imprisonment would be a proper starting point before factoring in potential uplifts and discounts.
Crown prosecutor Usha Keller sought a one-year uplift for the search warrant charges and a three-month uplift for his prior criminal history.
Kenny had been sentenced to two years and 14 days’ imprisonment in 2021 for another aggravated robbery in which he pulled a .22 rifle out of his pants and pointed it at a car owner, ordering her to get out of the vehicle. She described the incident as terrifying.
He had also been ordered to serve a sentence of two years and one month’s imprisonment in 2017 after putting scissors to a shopkeeper’s throat as an associate took money from the cash register.
Feyen acknowledged that her client hadn’t yet penned an apology letter, as most defendants who are seeking a remorse discount do, but the lawyer quoted Kenny directly from conversations with him.
“I’m sorry for what I’ve done,” he said, according to the lawyer. “I’ve caused a lot of pain to my victims and my family ... It was never right what happened.”
He’s gradually started to extricate himself from gang life, she said. Her client has been a member of the Crips since age 18 and had two brothers also in the gang – and also incarcerated.
While reform claims aren’t uncommon during sentencing hearings, Feyen did present the judge with something quite rare: a letter of support from the principal Corrections officer at the Mt Eden prison unit where Kenny has been on remand for the past year.
It appears, according to the officer’s observations, that the defendant has commenced a genuine effort to change.
“Mr Kenny is still a reasonably young man – he has the ability to change,” Feyen said, seeking a 10% reduction for rehabilitative efforts.
She also sought 15-20% for his rough upbringing, which included a parent addicted to methamphetamine, the involvement of Oranga Tamariki and having lived on the streets while still in primary school. Drug use started around age 8 and never stopped, he told a report writer.
The Crown acknowledged his background made for sad reading but argued that any discount should be tempered by the seriousness of the crime.
The biggest disagreement between the Crown and the defence was whether Kenny should be made the subject of a firearms prohibition order – a law enforcement tool that would allow police to stop and search him for guns at any time without probable cause for up to 10 years after his release from prison.
A law change that went into effect in March, ushered in by the coalition Government as part of a crackdown on gangs, widened the eligibility criteria for such orders with the hope of seeing them imposed more often.
But to impose one, a judge still needs to determine the risk of further gun violence is high.
It is high, the Crown argued. But Feyen pointed out there were no psychological reports to back up such a claim. More was needed, she argued, before allowing such an erosion of an individual’s civil liberties.
Judge McNaughton agreed with the Crown’s proposed starting point and uplifts. He then allowed 50% in combined reductions for his guilty plea, background, prospects for rehabilitation and remorse.
It resulted in a sentence of four years and seven months.
“Undoubtedly, there is a risk of future violence,” he said of the proposed firearms prohibition order. “I’m not persuaded it reaches the level of high risk or very high risk.”
He pointed out that Kenny wasn’t holding the gun during the current offence. Additionally, he noted, there was no proof that the gun found in his home was used in the robbery or that there was ever an intention to use it in public.
“I do accept there is at least the possibility of reform and positive change,” he said. “I decline the order.”
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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