Police examine the scene of a suspected hit-and-run incident on Thomas Rd in Māngere in June 2021. Photo / Supplied
Police examine the scene of a suspected hit-and-run incident on Thomas Rd in Māngere in June 2021. Photo / Supplied
A South Auckland gang associate who intentionally swerved his vehicle in the direction of a pedestrian whose back was turned to him, killing the father of 10 in front of his children, has been sentenced to prison and disqualified from driving for three years.
Favona resident Talikavili Semise To’A Talakai,23, had initially been charged with the June 2021 manslaughter of Abraham Kauri but he instead pleaded guilty in October to dangerous driving causing death and failing to stop and ascertain injury.
He stood in the High Court at Auckland today with his arms folded in front of his untucked chequered dress shirt as Justice Mark Woolford denied his request for home detention and instead announced a sentence of two years and eight months’ imprisonment.
“Is that all?” one of Kauri’s family members yelled as she stormed out of the courtroom. “That’s f***ing bull****!”
Authorities said Kauri’s death was spurred by a series of events largely unrelated to him that began on the morning of June 9, 2021. His nephew had taken a motorbike into Mangere Town Centre to get petrol when it was taken off him. What followed, Justice Woolford explained today, was a series of car chases, retrieval of the motorcycle and confrontations that ended with the fatal hit-and-run on Māngere’s Thomas Rd.
Armed police at the scene of a suspected hit-and-run incident on Thomas Rd, Māngere.
Court documents state Talakai had been at the gang pad that day for the Two Eight Brotherhood, or 28s, a group which has close ties with the Crips Family and had been involved in the day’s confrontations over the motorbike.
Talakai took gang members in his partner’s white Subaru Impreza as they drove to Thomas St for another confrontation, but they quickly left after members of Kauri’s family came out of the home with weapons, documents state.
The confrontation continued as Kauri’s family members, with Kauri in the front passenger seat, drove through the neighbourhood in a Ford van while Takaki drove his Subaru and another associate drove a Volkswagon Golf.
At one point, Kauri got out of the van and he and other members of the family began throwing rocks at the Volkswagon, authorities said.
“It’s then that the deceased stepped out a little onto the road,” Justice Woolford said today, explaining that Talakai had been about three car lengths behind the Golf. “You deviated from your path and accelerated...
“The deceased went flying through the air and landed several metres down the road.”
Kauri suffered serious head trauma as a result and died at the scene.
“After hitting the deceased, you sped up and drove away at speed,” the judge noted, adding that the defendant then tried to hide the badly damaged car under tarpaulins and mats.
Police impound a car suspected in a hit-and-run incident on Thomas Rd, Māngere.
The defendant also lied to his partner about how the damage had been caused, the judge noted.
In the hours after Kauri’s death, witnesses described mayhem in the South Auckland neighbourhood as roughly two dozen people were temporarily handcuffed amid a heavy police presence.
“You killed my dad,” a young man was heard crying at the scene to a person who had been detained.
Justice Woolford noted today that four of Kauri’s sons - ages 14, 16, 20 and 25 - were present when he was struck by the Talakai’s car. The incident, he acknowledged, has had an enduring impact on the family.
Defence lawyer Mark Ryan noted that his client has written a letter of apology to the family and that he prays for them frequently. He said his client deserved leniency for his guilty plea, for his youth at the time of offending and for his childhood, which included his family’s financial troubles and the death of his mother when he was 16.
Crown prosecutor Anna Devathasan emphasised that the case didn’t involve “mere inattention or a driver who’s consumed drugs or alcohol” but instead “an act of escalating gang-associated violence”. He tried to minimise his actions by saying he didn’t see Kauri even though that’s not what he pleaded guilty to, she argued.
“The loss that’s been caused here by this offending should be met with a term of imprisonment,” she said.
Dangerous driving causing death carries a maximum possible punishment of 10 years’ prison.
In deciding the sentence today, Woolford noted reports suggesting that the defendant has the capacity to lead pro-social life. But he also noted a report assessing the defendant as having a high risk of reoffending due to his previous convictions for dangerous driving.
Kauri was especially vulnerable, the judge added, because his back had been turned.
“He did not have an opportunity to identify the danger and jump out of the way,” he said.
