Rereamanu Ronaki-Wihapi named as murderer who twice ran down Taku Manu Paul in Te Puke

Rereamanu Ronaki-Wihapi was found guilty of murder for the death of his mother's partner, Taku Manu Paul, on Boxing Day 2022. Photo / Belinda Feek

A teenager who ran down his mother’s partner with a car and killed him can now be named as Rereamanu Ronaki-Wihapi.

Ronaki-Wihapi is serving a 17-year prison sentence for murdering Taku Manu Paul, with no prospect of parole for seven years.

He was just 17 at the time and sitting next to his mother Ephron Ronaki, who was Paul’s partner and arguing with him on the phone about missing Christmas money.

Ronaki-Wihapi was sentenced in October last year but can only now be named and identified as Ronaki’s son, after the release of a Court of Appeal decision.

The ruling turned down his lawyer’s attempt to win him permanent name suppression and quashed one of his two convictions.

Christmas money dispute before killing

Ronaki-Wihapi and his mother went looking for Paul on Boxing Day 2022 because she believed her partner had taken $500, which had been a Christmas present to her.

The teenager was driving because Ronaki was very drunk.

They spotted Paul on a Te Puke street and, with his mother initially egging him on, Ronaki-Wihapi ran into Paul, then turned around and deliberately drove over him as he lay on the ground.

In an unusual result which was due to a charging error, Ronaki-Wihapi received two different convictions for culpable homicide - one for murder and one for manslaughter - in relation to the same victim.

The Court of Appeal has now quashed the manslaughter count, saying the two convictions cannot stand together.

Ronaki-Wipahi, now 20, had no criminal history before the night he killed Paul.

However, court documents say that he had a history of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. At trial, his defence counsel, Ron Mansfield KC, said he had been “a traumatised teen put in a situation of extreme stress”.

‘Hit him, do it now, run him over’

The trial was told that Ronaki told her son to “hit him, do it now, run him over” when they spotted Paul.

The teenager hit Paul with the car twice, the first time on the left side with such force that Paul was thrown on to the windscreen before landing on the road.

With chaos breaking out among the people in the vehicle, Ronaki-Wihapi then did a U-turn and aimed the Nissan Teana directly at Paul as he was lying on the road, driving over his chest, and away from the scene at speed.

Ronaki-Wihapi said he was “in the moment” when he lined up on the prone man’s head “and just boosted it”, as his mother reached across and grabbed the steering wheel in an unsuccessful attempt to alter his course.

Pathologists could not say for sure which of the two strikes, which could have been as little as 13 seconds apart, killed Paul.

The whole incident, including the two impacts, was over within a minute and 14 seconds.

Ronaki-Wihapi was charged with murder separately for each impact.

At a jury trial, he was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter for the first hit, and guilty of murder for the second strike.

Sentenced to 17 years in jail

He was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment with no parole for seven years on the murder charge, and a lesser concurrent sentence for manslaughter.

His mother was sent to prison for four years and three months after being convicted of manslaughter for her part in Paul’s death.

She was also convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice by claiming she had been the driver.

Mansfield appealed Ronaki-Wihapi’s murder conviction to the Court of Appeal, along with the High Court’s refusal to grant his young client permanent name suppression.

Before hearing the matter, the Court of Appeal advised him that it believed Ronaki-Wihapi could not be convicted twice of a culpable homicide relating to the same victim.

Ephron Ronaki (centre) was sentenced to four years and three months for manslaughter of her part in the death of her partner, Taku Manu Paul. Photo / Belinda Feek

In its decision, it held that Ronaki-Wihapi should have either faced a single charge to cover both impacts, or two charges laid in the alternative.

“The short point is that there was a charging error in this case,” the Court of Appeal justices said.

“Mr Ronaki-Wihapi should not have faced two cumulative charges of murder for the death of Mr Paul.

Both verdicts ‘cannot stand together’

“He should either have faced a single charge, particularised in a way that alleged that it was satisfied either by the first impact or alternatively by the second impact, or two charges of murder advanced in the alternative,” the appeal court decision said.

“The verdicts of manslaughter and murder cannot stand together.”

The appeal court determined that as the jury found Paul was still alive at the moment of the second impact, the manslaughter conviction should not stand in relation to the first hit.

The murder conviction, which related to the second impact, was upheld.

The Court of Appeal decision also said the threshold that an offender would suffer “extreme hardship” if his identity was published was not met in relation to name suppression.

There was no presumption in favour of suppression outside the Youth Court, youth was not a particularly relevant factor in this case, and any effect on Ronaki-Wihapi’s future employment prospects would be a consequence of the conviction, not the publication of his name.

There was also a high public interest in identifying those convicted of murder, the Court of Appeal said.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.