A man’s girlfriend became so enraged at seeing him in a recent photo with his family that she waited outside a school for his wife and then followed her in a car.
Sharanjit Kaur tried to intimidate the other woman, at one point stopping in the middle of the road and hitting her car windows before following her again at speed.
She eventually crashed into an oncoming car, killing an innocent member of the public as she drove on the wrong side of the road.
The circumstances of the crash, which claimed Jonathan “Jono” Baker’s life on the morning of June 27 last year, have left his family devastated and angry.
In a packed Hamilton District Court room this afternoon, nine family and friends read their heartbreaking statements to Judge Arthur Tompkins.
Baker’s mother-in-law, Colleen White, said the family could make some sense of an angry wife chasing her husband’s mistress, but “a mistress chasing down his wife over a legitimate family photograph reads like a bad novel”.
Kaur’s counsel, Anjeet Singh, acknowledged her client was a “deeply troubled woman” but urged the judge not to send the 40-year-old to prison.
Kaur and her partner, known only in court proceedings as “Mr R”, had been together for eight years and were living together.
However, Mr R was still married to his wife, known as “Mrs R”, who lives with his parents and children.
Mrs R was aware of her husband’s relationship with Kaur; but he had refused to get divorced and often stayed at the familial home, causing “ill-feeling” on behalf of Kaur.
Several nights before the crash, Mr R took his wife and family to an Indian restaurant at Botany Downs, East Auckland, and took a photograph, with Mrs R’s hand on her husband’s shoulder and also showing her wedding ring.
About 8.40am on June 27, when at Horsham Downs School for her children’s school assembly, Mrs R got a call from Mr R that Kaur had seen the photo and he wanted her to say the photo was historical.
She wouldn’t and instead confirmed it was recent, and then heard Kaur “shouting angrily” in the background.
Kaur stormed off and Mr R went to work.
After the assembly finished, Mrs R began driving home and as she passed Resolution Drive spotted Kaur’s vehicle parked on the roadside.
Kaur then pulled out and followed Mrs R on to Henderson Rd and overtook her before pulling in front of her and travelling alongside her.
Kaur would slow down then speed up as Mrs R travelled behind her, in what Judge Tompkins found was an attempt to intimidate or scare her.
She then drove ahead and stopped her Toyota in the middle of both lanes, forcing Mrs R to also stop.
Kaur got out and began “hammering” on Mrs R’s driver’s window. Fearing for her safety, Mrs R drove around the woman and on to some grass to get away.
Kaur got back in her Toyota and pursued Mrs R, who drove at around 120km/h to try to get away.
After turning right on to Boyd Rd, Kaur pulled up alongside Mrs R’s vehicle as she travelled at 120km/h.
That stretch of road is straight but leads to a steep incline towards the intersection with Williamson Rd.
Kaur remained travelling on the wrong side of the road, driving at between 125km/h and 136km/h. As she reached the crest of the hill she collided with Baker’s vehicle, which was coming the other way.
Kaur braked, reducing her speed to around 109km/h at the point of impact.
Baker suffered a ruptured aorta and was killed instantly.
Kaur suffered minor injuries, while Mrs R called emergency services.
Baker, 49, was a respected staff member at the Department of Corrections and worked as a team leader at community probation.
On the morning of the crash, he’d just visited a team member who was off work with an injury and after leaving was going to drop off his vehicle for a service before heading back to work in central Hamilton.
Baker’s wife Andrea described the last time she saw her husband on the morning of the crash; how he’d made her a coffee, said “I love you”, before giving her a cheeky smile and leaving for the day.
She then recalled being given the devastating news that he’d been killed in a crash.
“I cried ... I yelled.
“My heart is almost constantly consumed by [his] loss and trying to work out my new normal.”
Devout Christians, she knew her husband would want her to forgive Kaur, “but that’s something I don’t feel like doing”.
“But as I know, with forgiveness comes freedom.
“You took a man out of this world whose heart was all about making a difference and trying to help others,” she told Kaur.
Crown solicitor Kasey Dillon said Kaur “became enraged” after seeing the family photo and as a result became involved in “a persistent course of bad driving ... and brake-checking” Mrs R.
She also had accumulated 65 demerit points because of speeding in the past, in one case between 120km/h and 130km/h.
Kaur had told a pre-sentence report writer that she was “running late for work”.
Kaur’s actions had “irrevocably impacted” the lives of Baker’s family, friends and associates.
Dillion urged the judge to take a starting point of five years’ jail but not to issue any discounts for remorse, rehabilitation or plea.
“There was no defence to this charge. A conviction was inevitable.”
Singh took the opportunity to give Baker’s family a bit more context around her client’s actions and labelled her as “deeply troubled”.
“The photo she found on the day of the accident was the inciting incident that led to a psychological collapse.
“Years of mental health decline precipitated the offending, and this has been given clinical context and may explain Ms Kaur’s behaviour as something significantly more than rage.”
A clinical psychologist found Kaur’s driving occurred during a “convergence of a chronic psychological deterioration”, with the argument before he crash acting as an “acute stressor”.
The specialist found Kaur reached a “psychological breaking point”.
Singh accepted White’s comments that Kaur’s behaviour made “no sense at all”, but she explained that Mr R had constantly reassured Kaur he no longer maintained any relationship with his wife.
He had also promised her that once she divorced her husband, he would divorce his wife.
“These assurances led Ms Kaur to believe that Mr R intended to stay with her and for them to have a committed relationship.
“The discovery of the photograph ... shattered these assurances and brought to the forefront years of accumulated anxiety, uncertainty and emotional turmoil that simmered for years.
“It was an eight-year-long relationship.”
Singh urged the judge to hand down a home detention sentence.
Judge Tompkins agreed with Dillon’s submissions and, after taking a five-year starting point, allowed a 20% discount for her guilty plea, jailing Kaur for four years.
He also disqualified her from driving for five years.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.