Detective Senior Sergeant James Keene talks to the Herald about Ariki Rigby homicide case. Video / Neil Reid
The gang member who murdered teenager Ariki Rigby with a hammer says he has been told his life is at risk.
Ahead of his sentencing on Friday Jimmy Heremaia is being kept in “protective custody” away from other prisoners, according to court documents.
The killer unsuccessfully sought name suppression in October to keep his identity hidden from other inmates.
Corrections said the department didn’t have information on a “specific threat” to Heremaia.
Ariki Rigby’s Mongrel Mob murderer is in segregation while awaiting sentence - he says a prison guard told him a “hit” had been put out on him.
Jimmy Heremaia will be sentenced in the Napier High Court on Friday for the September 2022 murder of the 18-year-old, and arsonfor setting fire to the car her body was in.
He pleaded guilty to the charges in February, five months after admitting to the crime in a covertly taped conversation with an undercover police officer.
Rigby was 18 when Heremaia killed her with two hammer blows to the head, then threw her body in the back of a car he had previously loaned from his Mongrel Mob “captain” and torched the vehicle in a rural Hawke’s Bay reserve’s carpark.
While on remand to face the charges, Heremaia and his lawyer Sumudu Thode argued for interim name suppression amid fears for his safety.
Teen Ariki Rigby was murdered by Jimmy Heremaia in Hawke's Bay in early September, 2022.
NZME composite photograph
Judge Paul Radich wrote in a court ruling that the teen’s murderer believed publication of his name would “endanger his safety or otherwise lead to extreme hardship because, given the significant gang overtones in the alleged offending, he faces serious retribution”.
Rigby had worn a Mongrel Mob T-shirt owned by Heremaia in public in Hawke’s Bay, sparking a chain of events that ultimately led to her death.
Heremaia had been ordered by the boss of the Flaxmere-based chapter of the gang to get it back from Rigby, whom he had known for only a few weeks.
Rigby was involved in several altercations in the following days, and took to carrying weapons – including a knife and a hammer – as she feared for her safety.
Ariki Rigby was murdered after being struck twice in the head with a hammer along a grass verge on the way into Bay View, on the outskirts of Napier. Photo / Neil Reid
It was this hammer that was the murder weapon used against her when, on the night of September 2, 2022, she was in a parked car with Heremaia near Bay View.
She swung the hammer at Heremaia, who overpowered her before delivering two fatal hammer blows to her head.
Heremaia was arrested in South Auckland – where he had fled shortly after killing Ariki – and soon after applied to be placed in segregation away from other inmates.
The suppression application document states that on Heremaia’s second day in prison “he was approached by a Corrections officer who told him that applying for segregation would be a good idea because there was a ‘hit out’ on him in prison”.
Radich was told during the application process that Heremaia never saw the guard again and it was understood he was on leave.
“He has gone on in his affidavit to say that he is in a segregated cell situated in the middle of other prisoners who have been in custody for a long time,” Radich wrote.
“Every day, he has said, other prisoners approach his cell ‘and demand to know who I am and where I am from, suspecting that I may be Jimmy Heremaia’.
“It is said that they kick the door and make serious threats of physical violence towards him but that he puts his head down and does not respond.”
The document said Thode – who declined to talk to the Herald about the alleged threat before Friday’s sentencing – had been trying to find the identity of the Corrections officer to find out more information.
The acting general manager of the Corrections facility where Heremaia was placed said he was unaware of any threat. A Corrections “intelligence supervisor” said the only information they had was from Thode’s correspondence.
A memorial garden with written, floral and solar light tributes to murdered teen Ariki Rigby was erected at the River Road Recreational Reserve shortly after her badly burned body was identified. Photo / Neil Reid
As part of the suppression application in late October, the court was also provided with screenshots of social media posts that named the murderer, with “a member of the public asking for a photograph of Mr Heremaia ‘so we can spread it’.”
Radich wrote how Heremaia believed if suppression was lifted and media could publish his photo “it is likely to confirm his identity to other prisoners who are then likely to be violent towards him”.
Radich ultimately declined the application, writing “any of the people with which Mr Heremaia is most concerned, members of the Mongrel Mob, will know what he looks like given that he was a patched member of that gang”.
As a segregation inmate, Heremaia is kept separate from other prisoners. Radich wrote when he was in the exercise yard he had “the protection of prison staff”.
Radich added: “While Mr Heremaia’s safety cannot be guaranteed in prison, the protective measures that are available to him there will mitigate sufficiently the risk of harm to him”.
Ariki Rigby's murderer Jimmy Heremaia claims he has received threats from fellow inmates as they walk past his prison cell. Photo / NZPA
But speaking generally, the department said prisoners could be segregated “either directed or voluntary”.
At any one time about one-third of the prison population were voluntarily segregated.
“Voluntary segregated prisoners associate with other prisoners on voluntary segregation and are housed in various units,” the spokesperson said.
“In some remand units they run a system where voluntary segregation prisoners exercise at the times that other prisoners are locked in their cells. There is no association between voluntary segregated prisoners and those who are not on voluntary segregation.”
It was “possible” a voluntary segregated prisoner may share a cell with another voluntary segregated prisoner, dependent on a risk assessment.
If an inmate was deemed to need to be “protected from a potential threat or risk” they can be “directed” into segregation.
“Prisoners who are on directed segregation and denied association have no contact with other prisoners. Prisoners who are on directed segregation and restricted association have contact with other prisoners who are also on the same arrangement.
“Being placed on directed segregation does not serve as a punishment, rather, it is to ensure the safety of themselves and others.”
Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 33 years of newsroom experience. He has reported on the Ariki Rigby homicide since the day her body was found.
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