Armourguard Security Mobile Patrol Officer, 25-year-old Ramandeep Singh, was killed by two people in Massey's Royal Reserve carpark in Auckland on December 18, 2023. Photo / Supplied
On the day that Ramandeep Singh left India for an adventurous new start in New Zealand, he assured his anxious parents that everything would work out.
His newly adopted country is a safe place, he told them. Just look at the crime rate.
But then he was inexplicably beaten to death in the middle of the night by two strangers while trying to close up a West Auckland reserve - one of the duties of his second job, as a security guard.
“He was my closest friend, my anchor, my guide,” Singh’s sister explained in a statement read aloud by prosecutors in the High Court at Auckland today as Lorenzo Tangira was sentenced for murder.
“And now he’s gone - stolen in the most brutal way. If this can happen to him while simply doing his job in a park, how can any of us feel secure?”
It was a sentiment that Justice Geoffrey Venning echoed today as he ordered Tangira to serve a life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of 13 years and nine months.
“I do consider that the murder of Mr Singh was conducted with a high degree of brutality and callousness,” the judge said. “The killing of Mr Singh was unprovoked. He was there doing his job...
“Given your propensity for violence ... there’s also the need to protect the community from you.”
Tangira was 26 years old in December 2023 when he and a 17-year-old companion attacked Singh, a 25-year-old who had moved to Auckland five years earlier to pursue higher education.
Tangira had spent the night drinking at his home before wandering over to the park about 200m away with the teenager, who was found unfit to stand trial following a multi-day hearing in April.
Despite the finding, a judge found him to have been involved in the killing. He continues to have interim name suppression.
Court documents note that Singh, who weighed approximately 46kg, first found himself in an altercation with the teenager. Tangira quickly jumped in to join in on the attack.
“He grabbed Mr Singh by the rear of his hi-vis vest and swung him around and proceeded to forcefully punch him repeatedly in the face,” the agreed summary of facts for Tangira states.
Singh fell to the ground, bleeding from his facial injuries, before scrambling to his work car and trying to escape the scene. The teenager jumped on the bonnet, trying to stop him.
“During the pursuit of Mr Singh, Mr Tangira’s hand was shut in the door of the vehicle,” court documents state. “After this, Mr Tangira tried to reach Mr Singh through the back of the vehicle.
“When Mr Singh was eventually pulled from the vehicle, the assault by [the teen] and Mr Tangira continued.”
He was punched, kicked and stomped on, knocking out his teeth and breaking his jaw in multiple places. His skull, cheekbones and orbital sockets sustained multiple fractures and he suffered significant brain damage, a post-mortem exam would later reveal.
“Footwear impressions showed kicking- and stomping-type damage to his face, throat and neck,” documents state.
Nearby residents heard Singh’s calls for help during the attack and alerted police. But by the time they arrived, the defendants were gone and Singh had already died.
His body had been dragged into the bushes near his vehicle. He was partially nude, his clothes having been pulled off during the struggle.
His phone and bag were missing, while his vehicle was dented, had a shattered windscreen and was stained with blood.
Police arrested Tangira a short time later, finding blood stains throughout his property.
Singh’s family and friends watched today’s hearing via audio-video feed from overseas. A large group of Tangira’s family and supporters sat directly behind the courtroom dock.
“Ramandeep was a nice guy and a polite person and would not get involved in fights,” wrote his close friend and former Auckland roommate in another victim impact statement.
“The pain of losing Ramandeep is constant and cuts deeply. We are haunted by the knowledge of how he died...
“I think about his final moments and it breaks me. No one should have to endure what Ramandeep did.”
Everyone who spoke of Singh recalled his compassion, politeness and “unwavering kindness towards others”.
“He had a way of making everybody feel seen and heard,” his sister said.
Singh’s parents noted that their son had tried to retreat on the morning of his death and avoid further violence, but he was pursued and dragged out of his car.
“Not even an animal would be treated as he was,” they said in a joint victim impact statement. “That level of cruelty is something we struggle to understand.
“His loss has torn us apart in ways that cannot be repaired. We cry ourselves to sleep. We avoid celebrations. There’s a silence in our home now - a heaviness, a void that will never be filled.”
Defence lawyer Vivienne Feyen submitted a letter of apology to the court from her client.
Tangira has admitted from the outset that he was present during Singh’s death but he continues to deny that he was responsible for the fatal blows, she noted.
“He fully recognises the irreparable harm,” she said of his letter.
She asked for a non-parole period of around 11 years, taking into account discounts for his remorse, rehabilitation efforts, background and guilty plea on the first day of his scheduled jury trial.
Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock agreed that Tangira should receive some discounts for his guilty plea and for having been raised in a violent home. But the judge should consider a longer minimum term given the “extreme violence and gratuitousness” of the attack, she said.
She characterised the defendant as having minimised his involvement and showing no real remorse.
Justice Venning agreed that his remorse letter did not seem genuine.
The summary of facts do not suggest Tangira participated in the head stomps after Singh was dragged from his car, he acknowledged. But in a case so gratuitous and sustained, it’s not appropriate to make fine distinctions about which attacker was the most culpable, he determined.
“You had a number of opportunities to stop the assault ... but you carried on,” the judge explained. “Your continued involvement would have no doubt encouraged your co-accused.”
Justice Venning described Tangira as a “physically imposing man” while the victim was thin and of small stature.
He adopted the Crown’s proposal of a 15-year starting point, then allowed only two modest reductions: nine months for his guilty plea and six months for his upbringing.
He declined discounts for remorse and rehabilitation efforts, noting that Tangira has a long criminal record that includes past convictions for violence.
“You had opportunities to change your life in the past ... but you failed to take them up,” he explained, adding that the normalisation of violence in his childhood could not explain his actions that morning.
“You must have known the violence against Mr Singh was extreme and unacceptable.”
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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