Terina Pineaha appears in the High Court at Napier where she was sentenced to prison for the manslaughter of Emma-Jane Kupa. Photo / RNZ
Mother of five Terina Pineaha was intoxicated, high and driving at nearly twice the speed limit on the wrong side of the road when she struck and killed a child.
Pineaha committed manslaughter through her “appalling” driving when enraged at the thought that her boyfriend might be having an affair, a court has been told.
Pineaha has now been sentenced to prison.
Her victim, Emma-Jane Sylvia Kupa, will “forever be 11″, according to her grieving mother.
Today, Pineaha, 34, appeared in the High Court at Napier for sentencing after pleading guilty to Emma-Jane’s manslaughter and related charges.
“You’ll never understand the pain you have caused within our family,” the girl’s mother, Shannon Davis, told the court through sobs as she read a victim impact statement.
“It feels like we are living in a horror movie which is on repeat.”
Emma-Jane was riding her bike alongside her 15-year-old sister, who was on a scooter, when Pineaha drove into her on Chatham Rd, Flaxmere, Hastings, on January 30 this year.
Davis said the older sister now had to live with the memory of the sound of screeching tyres and the sight of her sister being struck.
“What gives you the right to take my baby’s life and inflict that trauma on my other baby,” Davis said to Pineaha, who was sitting near her in the dock, also crying.
More than 20 members of Emma-Jane’s family and supporters were in the public gallery for the court appearance, many of whom were visibly upset.
Pineaha also spent much of the hearing in tears, hiding her face in her hands.
In sentencing Pineaha to four years and five months in prison, Justice Dale La Hood said that no sentence would make up for the loss of Emma-Jane.
She had been described as a beautiful, spiritual, amazing and headstrong child, but one who could be quiet at times as well.
The judge said that Pineaha committed several other offences on the drive leading to Emma-Jane’s death, including failing to stop after rear-ending a van and almost colliding with another vehicle.
Earlier, she had been involved in a confrontation at her boyfriend’s house, in which she deliberately drove into another woman’s car three times.
After that confrontation, she drove off at speed and was travelling at between 88km/h and 100km/h in a residential area, on the wrong side of the road, before she hit Emma-Jane.
The impact threw Emma-Jane into the air. She landed 25m away on a grass verge beside Ron Giorgi Park.
Pineaha’s borrowed Holden Vectra slid on the wet road, over a footpath and on to a grass verge, striking 10 wooden posts on a chain fence, before coming to a stop.
A pedestrian approaching the crossing just before the crash felt the wind from Pineaha’s car as it passed him.
Members of the public rushed to Emma-Jane’s aid, performing CPR until emergency services arrived. She could not be revived and died at the scene from head injuries.
Pineaha told police she was enraged and screaming to herself as she accelerated down the road.
“By the time I saw the bike, I was going too fast and didn’t have time to brake,” she said.
The summary of facts said she had drunk several cans of pre-mixed alcoholic drinks, including some with added vodka, and took five or six puffs of meth from a pipe on the morning before the crash, which happened in the late afternoon.
Between leaving her boyfriend’s house and hitting Emma-Jane, Pineaha drove into the back of a white Nissan van as it waited to enter a roundabout.
The van’s driver pulled over, expecting Pineaha to stop. Instead, she kept going, narrowly missing another vehicle and driving around the traffic island into the wrong lane to head south down Chatham Rd.
She again took off at speed.
On Chatham Rd, she fatally struck Emma-Jane.
Pineaha was breath-tested by police later and blew 595mcg of alcohol per litre of breath, above the legal limit of 400mcg.
She admitted charges of manslaughter, consuming methamphetamine, wilful damage, driving with excess breath alcohol, dangerous driving and failing to stop.
Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker said Emma-Jane’s death was the consequence of a series of fateful choices by Pineaha.
“She didn’t care. She exhibited a total loss of self-control,” Walker said.
“She didn’t think about any other road user or pedestrian as she raced down that residential street at almost twice the speed limit.”
Pineaha’s counsel, Philip Ross, said his client was deeply remorseful and sorry.
She fully accepted that her driving was appalling and said this had been a “spontaneous, emotionally wrought event”.
She had simply driven away in a blind rage.
The court heard that at the time of the incident, Pineaha was serving a one-year sentence of supervision for possessing methamphetamine and other charges. She was also convicted of possessing methamphetamine in 2018.
Pineaha has 29 previous convictions in total, mainly for dishonesty, but including one for refusing to provide a blood specimen to police in 2020.
In addition to the prison sentence, the judge disqualified Pineaha from driving for three years after her release from prison.
He declined to set a minimum period of imprisonment and said her release date would be decided by the Parole Board.
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.