Te Kuiti man Joshua Brennan threw two Molotov cocktails, one causing significant damage to an innocent person's home. Photo / 123RF
Te Kuiti man Joshua Brennan threw two Molotov cocktails, one causing significant damage to an innocent person's home. Photo / 123RF
On his way back to a house party after being kicked out for creepy behaviour, Joshua Peter Brennan stopped and threw a Molotov cocktail at an innocent person’s home.
When he saw a light go on inside the home he fled, leaving behind $25,000 worth of damage as a firebroke out.
But, that wasn’t the end of the 42-year-old’s antics.
As Brennan headed back to the Te Kūiti party, he threw another Molotov cocktail, using one of his DB Export bottles filled with petrol, but this one fizzled out in front of shocked partygoers.
Brennan appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on charges of arson, attempted arson, possession of cannabis, and drink driving charges on Monday.
Through his counsel Danielle Young, he tried to get Judge Noel Cocurullo to issue 55% in discounts so he would be in reach of home detention.
But the judge wasn’t interested.
‘F*** you, I’ll burn the house down’
Brennan was drinking with friends at his house on the evening of February 24, last year, when they decided to head to a party.
He kept drinking his DB Export but “became inappropriate towards female party goers”, court documents state.
Concerned, the occupants of the house asked him to leave.
But Brennan took exception to that and believed someone had stolen his phone.
He then got angry and said, “F*** you, I’ll burn the house down”.
Brennan was then chased from the property by partygoers, and he got involved in a fight with one person.
After the fight was broken up, he walked to his house on the opposite side of town.
He then got in his ute and drove back to the house and demanded his phone back, but the occupants were unimpressed and again asked him to leave.
He drove a short distance before stopping and getting an empty beer bottle and part filling it with petrol, then lighting it, and throwing it at a stranger’s house.
Joshua Brennan put petrol in a bottle, then lit it, and threw it at a house, which caught fire. Photo / 123RF
The bottle landed on the left side of the house and caught fire, causing significant damage to the toilet area.
After seeing a light inside the house come on, he drove back to the party house.
When police searched his home and car the following month, they found 28g of cannabis in his glovebox.
When questioned, Brennan admitted making the Molotov cocktails but said he tooted his horn outside the property of the first victim to make sure they were awake.
He threw the second one at the party house after claiming to be accosted, but wasn’t aiming for it to land anywhere in particular.
The drink-driving related charges happened in Christchurch, where he’s now living, in November last year and February this year.
He was charged with refusing to give a sample after the November incident, while blood analysis returned a level of 159mlg on February 20.
Counsel Danielle Young pushed for a multitude of discounts, including 20% for his Section 27 and alcohol and drug assessment report, 15% for efforts towards rehabilitation.
In total, she sought 55%.
“Let’s just say I get him to 24 months ... I mean, here’s the reality here.
“He lost the plot, made Molotov cocktails and committed potentially incredibly serious, violent situations with them.”
Young agreed but said Brennan had put in significant effort towards rehabilitation.
He was partway through an eight-week Mauri Ora experience programme, targeted at entrenched substance abuse.
“All of this rehabilitation has been voluntary, and he is making considerable effort to address the factors which underpin this offending,” she said.
He currently had work doing wood carving, so was “keeping himself busy and out of trouble”.
However, Judge Cocurullo noted the two driving offences since his arrest.
‘This could have been much more serious’
Crown solicitor Kasey Dillon said, “But for the sheer luck of the second Molotov cocktail being thrown and not catching fire, this would be a much more serious situation”.
Alcohol played a large part in the offending, he said.
“It’s caused by this defendant’s inability to cope with adverse situations while he is drinking.”
The cost of the damage to the victim’s home was between $20,000 and $25,000.
He urged the judge to keep the discounts to a total of 40%.
Judge Cocurullo restricted his discounts to 35% from a starting point of 48 months and jailed him for 31 months, or two years and seven months.
As he was going to prison, Judge Cocurullo said there was no point ordering reparation for the house damage, but made him pay medical expenses of $365.34 to police for his blood analysis and disqualified him from driving for 12 months.
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.
