Kaitāia man sentenced for smashing into truck after girlfriend announced break-up

A motorist charged with attempted murder after a deliberate crash left his partner with devastating injuries moments after she said she was leaving him has been sentenced to home detention.

Joseph Giovanni Booker, 24, pleaded guilty in March to a reduced charge of reckless driving causing injury.

As such, the Far North (Kaitāia) man faced up to five years imprisonment as he stood before Justice Peter Andrew in the High Court at Auckland today instead of the 14-year maximum sentence that accompanies an attempted murder conviction.

“I’m going to kill us both,” Booker had said moments before “colliding with significant force” into a large stationary truck at the end of a Manurewa cul-de-sac, Justice Peter Andrew pointed out this morning as he announced his sentence.

Justice Andrew denied the Crown’s request for a term of imprisonment - necessary, they said, to denounce and deter what could have easily been a fatal crash.

But he also denied the defence’s request for community detention, which would have allowed the defendant to keep working for his father.

“I feel such a sentence would not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offending,” he said of community detention - which would likely require a curfew but not 24-hour confinement to his home.

Joseph Booker, initially charged with attempted murder, appears in the High Court at Auckland while pleading guilty to a reduced charge. Photo / Michael Craig

Booker’s victim watched the hearing via audio-video link after commuter chaos on Auckland’s motorways this morning made it impossible to get to court in time.

In the crash, she had suffered a collapsed lung, a protruding eyeball, spinal fractures and a gruesome “degloving” injury to her forehead as she smashed into the windshield, propelled from the back seat.

“Deep down, I am deteriorating because the love of my life tried to hurt me,” she said in a written victim impact statement that was read aloud by the prosecutor. “The spirit is gone. I am not myself anymore.”

‘Kill us both’

The Far North (Kaitaia) resident and his 23-year-old girlfriend had been dating for about five months when they started arguing again at her family’s Manurewa home on August 3 last year.

Police had already responded to three family harm reports between the two in the previous months, including an incident in June that resulted in charges against his partner.

The two were no longer allowed to be near each other, as per the woman‘s bail conditions.

Both were drunk that day as they argued, according to the agreed summary of facts.

Booker at one point was told by a family member of the woman to leave the home after the defendant punched a hole in the wall.

But the woman followed and the arguing continued even after he tried, unsuccessfully, to leave without her, documents state.

The two eventually left together for a party on the North Shore that had been planned for the woman‘s brother. But they never made it out of Manurewa.

“He was driving above the speed limit and was affected by the alcohol he had consumed earlier in the evening,” court documents state.

“[Booker’s partner] told him that she was going to leave him, and that she didn’t care if they went to the birthday party.

“The defendant then accelerated further. [She] told him to slow down. In response, he said that he was going to ‘kill [them] both’.”

The crash occurred a short time later.

Booker applied the brakes moments before smashing into the other vehicle but it was too late. His partner, who had been sitting in the back of the vehicle without a seatbelt, was thrown into the windscreen as her side of the car crumpled upon impact.

Joseph Booker was charged with attempted murder after a crash at the end of the Adams Rd cul-de-sac in Manurewa. Photo / Google

When an officer spoke to him the next day at Middlemore Hospital, Booker estimated he had been going 80 or 90km/h at the time of the crash. He was asked what his intent had been.

“Just crash and that’s all,” he responded, adding that he tried to put his foot on the brake but couldn’t slow down.

Three days later, as he spoke to a doctor, his explanation changed. He said it had been an accident caused in part by his intoxication and denied trying to harm himself or his passenger.

Ten days after that, after he had been released from the hospital, he sat down for a recorded interview with police.

“When Detective [Mitchell] Keen asked what was going through the defendant’s head, the defendant stated that he was mad because they argued, and that he was not thinking straight,” documents state.

“He realised they were going too fast, but he tried to brake. His speed was ‘not too fast’, although he accepted he was driving beyond the speed limit, although at only approximately 70km/h.”

The detective then reminded him of what he had said during the first interview the day after the crash.

“He accepted that he had had enough of the argument; he saw the parked truck; and that he just wanted to crash,” documents state.

“I probably was trying to crash,” he was recorded telling police, adding that he “definitely didn’t want to hurt anyone”.

A blood test found him to have 82 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The limit is 80.

Deterrence needed?

Booker’s former girlfriend told the court that he was supposed to be the designated driver that day. Booker also pleaded guilty to drink driving.

At the time, she had been in training to be a welder.

However, since the crash she has been crippled by anxiety, often unable to leave her bedroom, she said.

She described a panic attack at a supermarket, when her mother had to leave a cancer treatment to collect her.

Due to the fractured spine, she couldn’t walk for four weeks after the crash and continued to walk with a limp after that, she recalled.

But the worst part, she said, has been the scars to her face. The degloving of her forehead meant the top layer of skin was ripped from her underlying muscle and tissue.

“I was so embarrassed ... for anyone else to see the scars on my face,” she said.

“I don’t like the way I look anymore.

“I loved him, and because of what he did I’ve had to let him go.”

Crown prosecutor Aysser Al-Janabi asked the judge for a starting point of four years imprisonment before taking into account reductions for his guilty pleas, youth and the fact it was his first conviction.

That would be higher than similar cases but would reflect the serious nature of intentionally crashing the car, she said, suggesting that he had again sought to minimise his actions in an interview with a report writer prior to the sentencing.

“This was very serious offending,” she said.

“The fact there was no more serious harm ... was really probably a matter of luck.

“This case carries a significant need for denunciation and deterrence.”

But defence lawyer Daniel Taumihau said there were worse cases in which prior defendants had shorter starting points. The judge agreed.

Booker, the defence lawyer said, has shown “genuine insight into his offending” and had demonstrated while on electronically monitored bail since December that he had “a very clear understanding of the seriousness of the situation he’s in”.

He suggested that being able to keep his employment would serve as a “significant protective factor” in his rehabilitation.

Justice Andrew set a starting point of two-and-a-half years before allowing 55% in reductions - 25% for guilty pleas, 10% for previous good behaviour, 15% for youth and 5% for remorse. Because the end sentence was less than two years, he could then consider swapping it with a non-custodial sentence, which he did.

He settled on five-and-a-half months home detention, to be served at an address in Auckland. Booker was also disqualified from driving for the next year.

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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