Artist Dali Susanto is known for his public art in outdoor spaces, particularly around Hastings. Photo / Warren Buckland
Artist Dali Susanto is known for his public art in outdoor spaces, particularly around Hastings. Photo / Warren Buckland
Dali Susanto supplied drugs mainly within his artistic social circle and was jailed for two years and six months.
He appealed to the High Court where Justice Cameron Mander considered the impact of incarceration on Susanto’s children.
Susanto’s prison sentence was quashed and a term of 10 months of home detention imposed.
A drug-dealing artist has had his jail term quashed and a home detention sentence imposed instead after a judge considered the impact a prison sentence would have on his children.
“The Supreme Court has affirmed that the interests of an offender’s children is a relevant factor that may be takeninto account as part of the sentencing exercise,” High Court Justice Cameron Mander said while ruling on the case of Hastings artist Dali Susanto.
However, he appealed his sentence and Justice Mander considered a plea from his ex-partner that he receive a non-custodial sentence to allow him to continue to take a “full and active role” in his children’s lives.
The district court was told that between August 2022 and February 2024, Susanto sold the stimulant and psychedelic drugs MDMA and LSD, cannabis edibles, cannabis plant and magic mushrooms to people in his artistic circle and at festivals.
He obtained the drugs from several sources and harvested the psilocybin-containing magic mushrooms from the wild.
In jailing Susanto in October, District Court Judge Richard Earwaker said Susanto’s drug dealing involved a range of substances and was not a one-off. Sales were steady over a period of about 20 months, he said.
In determining the prison sentence, the judge took a starting point of four years for the class A drugs, plus two years each for the class B and class C drugs, then reduced the eight-year starting point to five years for “totality”, to recognise the criminality of the overall offending.
He gave a 25% discount for Susanto’s guilty plea, 10% for previous good character, 10% because he assisted the police, and 5% for remorse, arriving at an end sentence of two years and six months.
In taking the appeal against sentence to the High Court, lawyer Scott Jefferson said the overall starting point had been excessive, as it incorrectly characterised Susanto’s offending as that of a “busy street dealer” motivated by commercial gain.
Drug dealing said to be ‘recreational’
Jefferson said Susanto was an artist who earned his living through his artwork and the drug-dealing was best characterised as “recreational”.
He argued for an overall starting point of four years which, when the same discounts were applied, would bring the end sentence to two years in prison, at which home detention can be considered as an alternative.
Justice Mander said the sentencing judge had identified the salient features of Susanto’s offending, including the duration over 20 months, the scale of 73 discrete transactions or offers to sell, and the range of five drugs involved.
“Mr Susanto’s overall commercial gain was low but it is unavoidable that Mr Susanto operated as a street-level dealer who sourced drugs for on-supply from a number of sources for the purpose of profit,” Justice Mander said.
He said the five-year starting point was within the range available to the judge.
However, Justice Mander said another potential mitigating factor was available that had not been raised in the District Court – the effect that Susanto’s incarceration would have on his primary school aged children.
Susanto’s ex-partner had written a letter saying she had limited support without Susanto’s help.
Susanto an ‘engaged parent’
Crown counsel Lara Marshall recognised that Susanto was an “engaged parent”, at times a primary caregiver, and an “essential and significant” presence in the children’s lives.
Justice Mander said the offending in his case was “inherently serious”.
“But it has been accepted that Mr Susanto’s ‘market’ was within his own social circle and he was responding to that demand, rather than actively seeking out customers from the general public,” Justice Mander said.
“I accept the level of social harm was accordingly less than would otherwise have been the case – for example [for] a prolific methamphetamine dealer,” the judge said.
“In the very unusual circumstances of this case, I consider it likely that a 5 to 10% discount for the impact Mr Susanto’s incarceration will have on his children will likely have been afforded to him had the issue been brought to the sentencing court’s attention.”
When the 10% was added to the credit already applied, an end sentence of 24 months of imprisonment was the result.
This brought the sentence to the threshold at which home detention could be substituted, which Justice Mander said would be appropriate.
Dali Susanto had an exhibition at the Hastings City Art Gallery in which the walls and other surfaces were covered with his work. Photo / Warren Buckland
People on short terms of imprisonment normally serve half their allotted time, and the maximum home detention sentence is for 12 months.
As Susanto had already spent two months in prison, a new sentence of 10 months of home detention was imposed.
“There will be offenders who, because of a rare combination of factors, can appropriately be afforded a level of leniency that can be reconciled with a principled approach to sentencing,” Justice Mander said.
Susanto’s outdoor art is prominent around Hastings, where he lives and works.
He has been described as a “real identity in the flourishing Hawke’s Bay arts scene” and has exhibited at several local galleries and also at the Taupō Museum and in Auckland.
One of his paintings is currently being offered at more than $3000.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
