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Jaykob Tutai was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 13 years for stabbing his ex-partner, Nazia Hai, to death in West Auckland.
Tutai claimed drug-induced psychosis after a two-day bender.
The “callous” and “brutal” attack occurred as Tutai was confronted about their son’s missing Nintendo console the day after the child’s sixth birthday.
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
A man who stabbed his ex-partner to death in her West Auckland home one day after celebrating their son’s sixth birthday together bowed his head today in a High Court at Auckland dock as a victim impact statement from the boy - who wasin the home during the horrific attack - was read aloud by a family member.
“My dad scares me,” the boy said of father Jaykob Tutai. “He’s not nice. I never want to see him.”
A short time later, Justice Graham Lang sentenced the 30-year-old defendant - who claimed he was suffering from drug-induced psychosis after a sleepless two-day bender involving meth and cocaine - to serve a life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of 13 years before he can begin to apply for parole.
“There are undeniably aspects of callousness and brutality to your offending,” the judge said, adding that had the stabbing occurred in front of their son he would have found the killing to have qualified for a minimum term of imprisonment of 17 years. “Thankfully ... nobody else entered the room until Ms Hai’s mother came in at the end of the episode.”
Emergency responders rushed to Nazia Hai’s Te Atatū Peninsula home, where she was living with her mother and her son, around 7.15am on September 11, 2023, to find the 27-year-old in critical condition. Tutai still had the knife in his hand.
“I already know what I did was wrong,” he told police at the scene.
Jaykob Tutaui appears in the High Court at Auckland, charged with the murder of Nazia Hai. Photo / Michael Craig
Around 6.45 that morning, Hai had confronted the defendant about whether he had sold their child’s missing Nintendo video game console. He responded to the accusation with a “short verbal argument” that escalated quickly to him stabbing her repeatedly with a knife he had retrieved from the kitchen.
The two had first started dating in 2012 but were separated and sleeping in different bedrooms at the time of the stabbing.
“Towards the end of the [birthday] evening, there were indications of conflict between the pair based on mistrust of Ms Hai by Mr Tutai,” court documents state.
A pathologist would later count seven deep stab wounds, including ones to her neck and chest that would have been fatal and a wound to her arm described as “potentially fatal”. She also suffered a deep stab wound to her back and four shallower wounds.
“Upon hearing her daughter’s scream, Ms Hai’s mother ran towards her, and as she did, she observed Mr Tutai remove the knife from her body,” court documents state. “She (mother) then tried to drag her daughter away in an attempt to help her.
Police at the Te Atatū Peninsula, West Auckland, home of Nazia Hai, who was stabbed to death by former partner Jaykob Tutai in Sept 11, 2023. Photo / Hayden Woodward
“At this point Mr Tutai has phoned the police communication centre advising the call taker that he had stabbed his ex-partner and that she was dying.”
When police arrived, they told Tutai multiple times to drop the knife and come out peacefully, but he refused, the summary of facts states.
“Police had to use force to detain and arrest him,” authorities said.
‘Scum’ vs ‘big, kind heart’
Hai, known by the nickname Naz, devoted her life to her son and had recently obtained her real estate licence in a step towards building a bright future with him, friends and family previously told the Herald. The Epsom Girls’ Grammar School alumnus loved netball, cooking and visiting family in the Far North.
Her friends and family filled the courtroom today, many wearing black hoodies with a glamourous portrait of Hai emblazoned on the back.
“Every day I wake up hoping this is all a nightmare,” her older sister, Shazia Peri, said during a victim impact statement.
Nazia Hai, 27, died on September 11, 2023, following an incident at a Te Atatū Peninsula home.
She described her sister as kind-hearted, smart, loyal, beautiful, ambitious and hard-working.
“I never understood her relationship with you as you were none of these things,” she said. “You had so many reasons to change for your family. You chose not to.
“You don’t know how to be a man, Jaykob. You’re scum. You will forever be a coward - a wannabe gangster who never deserved my sister in your life.”
She expressed hope he will remain in prison for the rest of his life.
Hai’s mother said she missed her daughter’s laugh, her smile and her “big, kind heart”.
She recalled the terror of holding a towel to her daughter after the attack, trying in vain to stop the bleeding.
“No child should have to see this,” she said of the aftermath of the stabbing.
The defendant’s young son did not attend the hearing but his aunt read aloud his statement, noting that he still suffers daily nightmares.
“I am sad,” the boy said. “I miss my mum. We would sleep together in bed and cuddle. She was the best mum.”
Animal abuse, psychosis
During today’s hearing, Crown prosecutor Claire Paterson asked that Section 104 of the Sentencing Act be engaged. The law calls for a minimum term of imprisonment of no less than 17 years for murders committed “with a high level of brutality, cruelty, depravity, or callousness”.
Defence lawyer Claire Robertson acknowledged the brutality of the offence but argued the law should be reserved for even worse murders. She sought a starting point of 14 years, with further discounts for his guilty plea, remorse and his personal circumstances.
Justice Lang said it was a close call but agreed with the defence that the law shouldn’t be engaged. He emphasised to family in attendance that at the end of the day Tutai was serving a life sentence so he could remain in prison beyond the 13-year minimum he imposed.
Police and paramedics at the Te Atatū Peninsula home of Nazia Hai, who was stabbed to death by former partner Jaykob Tutai on September 11, 2023. Photo / Hayden Woodward
The judge set a starting point of 14 years and six months before allowing a year reduction for Tutai’s guilty plea and six more months for his remorse and difficult childhood leading to drug addiction.
He was sent to live with his grandmother at a young age to protect him from his father’s abuse of his mother, the court was told. The separation led to anxiety and anger issues, which ended up manifesting itself in outbursts of shoplifting, cruelty to animals and lighting fires. Up until the murder, his most serious crime had been an aggravated robbery in 2013 that resulted in a two-years-and-eight-months prison sentence.
Tutai started using drugs by the time he was in intermediate school and was addicted to methamphetamine while still a teenager. He was a member of a gang for several years starting in 2017 but said it was a negative experience because it heightened his already troublesome anxiety. The defendant now has a large, square cover-up tattoo on his neck, where gang insignias are often found.
In the hours before stabbing his former partner to death, Tutai said he was hearing male voices in his head - thinking they were from the next room over - and so armed himself with knives “to take them out”. The two-day bender had left him in a “confused and paranoid state”, he reported.
The defendant self-reported a history of psychosis when using drugs, having stopped using cannabis a year earlier for that reason. But the judge noted he has never been diagnosed with a serious, enduring mental illness and intoxication is not considered a mitigating factor.
The judge also referred to a remorse letter submitted to the court today, which he said could be seen as “too little too late”.
The courtroom gallery erupted into a brief fit of yelling after the sentence was announced.
“F***ing piece of s***!” one person yelled at the defendant, followed by another who said: “F*** you!”
“F***ing c***!” were the final words Tutai would have heard from the courtroom as he was led out a side door to a holding cell, where he will be taken back to prison.
There were no supporters of the defendant there to say goodbye.
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.
