The man who admitted abducting, sexually violating, raping and murdering jogger Margaret-Lynne Baxter in Hastings on January 21 was today sentenced to life in jail with 15 years' non-parole.
At the sentencing in the High Court at Napier, Justice Gendall described the crime as atrocious.
While admitting the murder, Dartelle Maremare James Alder, 24, of Flaxmere, had denied deliberately running Ms Baxter down as she jogged along Stock Rd, near Flaxmere.
After a week-long trial last month he was found guilty on that charge.
In front of a gallery packed with family members, police and media, Justice Gendall today said Alder's behaviour was a brutal and callous act toward a helpless and terrified woman.
Ms Baxter, 38, had been staying in Hawke's Bay for Wellington's long anniversary weekend when she went for a run with her partner Vitas Bercinskas.
She turned back at the aerodrome while he continued on.
On his return Mr Bercinskas found Ms Baxter's running shoes on the side of Stock Rd and thought she was playing a practical joke on him.
Alder admitted to police that after hitting Ms Baxter, he loaded her in the back of his car and drove to a house in Maraekakaho Rd where he raped, sodomised and had oral sex with her while stabbing her more than 30 times.
He finally killed her by smashing a terracotta field tile on her head.
- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
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