Kawakawa home invasion: Jail for robbing elderly woman in home

Carrisa Davis has been jailed for nearly six years for her role in the assault and aggravated robbery of a 92-year-old woman near Kawakawa. Photo / NZME

A 92-year-old Northland woman injured in a violent home invasion hopes she's dead before one of those responsible for the crime is released from jail.

The senior citizen was assaulted twice, once with a marble elephant, when she tried to ring police during the violent home invasion, needing four stitches and spending a night at Bay of Islands Hospital in Kawakawa.

She was targeted by two women who had been drinking and playing the pokies in Kawakawa and decided to burgle properties in the area because they needed more money.

The nonagenarian's jewellery, bank cards and, most importantly, a calling card from her late husband — which she had treasured for more than 75 years — were stolen and about $700 was emptied from her account via ATMs in Kerikeri and Paihia.

Carrisa Angelique Davis was one of those responsible for the violent home invasion in January last year and entered guilty pleas to two charges of dishonestly taking and using a document, a single charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and another of aggravated robbery.

She was sentenced by the Whangārei District Court this week to five years and nine months in jail while the second woman accused of the home invasion has pleaded not guilty and elected a jury trial.

The second woman is facing six charges of burglary, one of committing a burglary with a weapon, one of wounding with intent to cause grievious bodily harm, and aggravated robbery.

Sentencing Davis, Judge Duncan Harvey said it was difficult to imagine a more vulnerable person than a 92-year-old who had no chance of defending herself.

"You left her in such a state of mind that she told her daughter she hopes she dies before you're released from prison," the judge told Davis.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she could no longer brush her hair without discomfort, her eyesight has become poorer even with glasses, she suffers from chronic headache, and has become a prisoner in her own home.

Judge Harvey said Davis and another woman asked the 92-year-old for a glass of water before they entered her house and started searching for valuable items.

She was hit at the back of the head with a marble elephant before she went to the kitchen and attempted to call police using the landline.

The second woman allegedly pulled the cord out of the socket and swung it in a threatening manner.

When the home owner tried to use her phone to ring police, she was again assaulted and felt blood at the back of her head after she fell to the ground.

She sought help from relatives nearby after the two women left her house.

Crown lawyer Richard Annandale said jail was the inevitable sentence given the use of extreme violence in the sanctity of her home where she was entitled to feel safe.

He said Davis committed the offences while she was on a sentence of intensive supervision at the time. She has amassed 18 convictions between 1996 and 2018, he said, with a massive escalation into serious violent offending.

Defence lawyer John Moroney said Davis had no history for violent offending and urged the court to take into account the fact that she made a full and frank statement to police, telling them where to find evidence linking her to the crime.

She had been exposed to serious physical and psychological violence from an early age, he said.

Moroney said a minimum term of imprisonment, as submitted by the Crown, was not necessary.

Judge Harvey said Davis had to be held accountable for the act of random violence which was just unacceptable in our community.

Unless a considerable amount of work was done in terms of rehabilitation, he said Davis would be a danger to the community.