Tauranga teen drug dealer bashed would-be robber with baseball bat until he thought he was dead

The badly injured victim was airlifted from Tauranga Hospital to Waikato Hospital after the attack. Photo / Mike Walen / File

A teenage drug dealer took a baseball bat to a knife-wielding man who came to rob him, twice knocking him unconscious and stopping only when he thought the robber was dead.

Samuel William Goodwin was only 19 at the time. He struck his would-be robber multiple times around the head, shattering bones around his eyes and causing multiple facial and skull fractures, bleeding on the brain and damage to the optic nerve in his right eye.

Details of the attack near Tauranga in August 2021 are contained in a High Court judgment after Goodwin failed to have his jail term for the attack and drug-dealing reduced on account of his youth.

Goodwin is currently serving three years and nine months imprisonment for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, supplying LSD and possession of cannabis for supply.

High Court Justice Graham Lang said that Goodwin was living with his partner in a van and dealing drugs when he was contacted by a man who asked to buy drugs from him on August 15, 2021.

He did not know that the man planned to rob him and was armed with a knife when he came to a reserve where the van was parked.

The man confronted Goodwin with the knife and demanded he hand over his money and drugs.

Goodwin responded by striking his would-be assailant on the head with a metal baseball bat which his partner handed to him, knocking him unconscious.

Goodwin and his partner then started packing their things and preparing to leave the reserve, when the victim regained consciousness and tried to reach for his knife.

The teen then hit him with the bat again, knocking him unconscious for a second time.

“Mr Goodwin then struck the victim on the head on numerous occasions with the baseball bat whilst he was lying unconscious on the ground,” Justice Lang said.

“He later told an associate he had delivered seven blows to the victim’s head and that he only stopped when he thought the victim was dead.”

The victim was airlifted to Waikato Hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma.

Justice Lang said the victim will suffer long-term and lasting effects from the attack and “may well have been fortunate not to have died of his injuries”.

Police found Goodwin in his van at Te Puna, near Tauranga, the next day. They searched the van and found the baseball bat.

They also found cellphones, containing data that showed that between May 29 and August 16, Goodwin sold 250 tablets of LSD and 3.6kg of cannabis.

Inside the van were 14 LSD tablets, approximately 30 grams of cannabis head material and 20 grams of cannabis powder, paraphernalia and more than $2000 in cash.

Goodwin pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the district court on March 23 this year.

He appealed against his jail term to the High Court, arguing that the sentencing judge failed to give him an adequate discount to recognise the fact that he was just 19 when he committed the offences.

However, Justice Lang said the discounts given for the “extremely serious” offending were within the available range.

“Further, having regard to the seriousness of Mr Goodwin’s offending I cannot say that an end sentence on all charges of three years nine months imprisonment was manifestly excessive.”

Justice Lang dismissed the appeal.

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 front-line experience as a probation officer.