He was hospitalised with bruising and scrapes to various parts of his body.
On Tuesday, the trio appeared in the Hamilton District Court on charges of aggravated robbery, while Masters earlier admitted an extra charge of assault with a weapon.
The aggravated robbery
The court heard it was 1.50pm on January 21, 2022, when they arrived at the superette on Bankwood Rd in a stolen Mazda, driven by Masters.
They got out and ran into the store with their faces and hands covered and carrying black rubbish bags.
Chadwick and Taylor-Harrison immediately ran around the counter to where a female employee was standing. Masters stood on the other side, appearing to communicate with the pair as they began opening the cigarette cabinets.
The woman activated the fog cannon which saw the trio start to run from the store, each grabbing icecreams from the freezer as they headed out.
But as they got to the doorway they were confronted by two members of the public who tried to stop them from fleeing.
There was a short fight but the trio managed to get past them and into the vehicle.
One of the members of the public tried to stop the vehicle, but Masters reversed the car, throwing him to the ground.
Masters then aimed the car at the victim a second time, hitting him and sending him up and over the bonnet, before they sped off.
They drove to the Melville skate park at 2.50pm and were found a short distance away by police soon after.
The victim was taken to Waikato Hospital with injuries to his elbows, hip, nose, knees, and chest.
‘All too common in the Waikato’
At the trio’s sentencing, Crown solicitor James Lewis labelled the incident as “violent offending on a small business”.
“The type that is all too common on businesses in this region.”
The victim was frightened at the time and remained scared to this day.
“It’s important not to minimise this offending by saying they only got away with low-value items.
“The fog cannon was a significant impediment to that and they were disguised.”
‘Not the most serious of its type’
Chadwick’s counsel Glen Prentice said the offending wasn’t the most serious of its type as none of them had weapons.
While his client entered a late guilty plea, he should still get 10% credit as it saved the victims having to give evidence at a trial.
Chadwick, who has no previous convictions, was also young at the time and although he had a reasonable upbringing, they struggled with poverty which led him into “criminal offending and thefts to survive”.
Scott McKenna, on behalf of Taylor-Harrison, said his client was “quite intelligent”, well-spoken and had good prospects for the future despite a tough upbringing.
Kyle Masters’ counsel, Charles Bean, valiantly, yet unsuccessfully, tried to argue for a lower starting point given there were no weapons involved, no premeditation, no threats of violence and no actual violence until after they left.
“They were young men rushing in and rushing out, stealing ice creams.
“It would be different if there was a large amount of stock taken or physical violence but that’s not a factor here.”
His client’s alcohol and drug addiction was at the “heart and nexus” of the offending, he said.
Judge Noel Cocurullo said there was an inherent vulnerability to the superette and then a member of the public was injured while trying to stop them.
After applying 57% worth of discounts to Chadwick’s starting point of 54 months’ imprisonment, he arrived at an end sentence of 23 months before converting it to 12 months of home detention.
Taylor Harrison and Masters were both jailed for three years and six months.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 19.
