Trinity Brown gets home detention for death of cousin Reif Cotter, who fell from roof of car

Napier father Reif Cotter died on December 27 last year.

• Reif Cotter, died after falling from a moving vehicle while holding a mattress.
• Now his cousin Trinity Brown has been sentenced to 12 months of home detention for reckless driving causing death.
• Judge Russell Collins gave Brown credit for her guilty plea and taking responsibility for the incident.

“You clearly are a good person who has done something you will regret for the rest of your life.”

Those were Judge Russell Collins’ words to a woman charged with reckless driving that caused the death of her cousin when he fell from a mattress on top of a station wagon.

Trinity Brown appeared in the Napier District Court after the death of her relative, Reif Cotter.

Cotter, a 33-year-old father of three, died last December 27 in Mārewa, Napier.

The court was told that Cotter had asked Brown to drive while he rode on top of the vehicle to “hold down” the mattress.

After the incident, Brown admitted reckless driving causing death and driving with excess breath alcohol.

During the sentencing, a person in the public gallery told Judge Collins that relationships remained intact within Brown and Cotter’s wider family.

There were audible expressions of relief when the judge said, “She is not going to prison today”.

Instead, Brown was sentenced to 12 months of home detention and disqualified from driving for two years.

The sentence also came with special conditions not to consume alcohol or non-prescribed drugs, and to undergo counselling as directed by a probation officer.

Judge Collins said the word reckless in the charge meant “you took a risk that you shouldn’t have taken and that is how the tragedy happened”.

But he gave Brown credit for her immediate guilty plea and for taking responsibility.

He said the best thing she could do now to honour the memory of her cousin was to fulfil her potential in life.

“I have no doubt that we will not see you back in court again.”

The court was told earlier that Cotter had “come across” the mattress and had it placed on the top of the black station wagon on the evening he died.

The vehicle travelled from the Mārewa shops in Kennedy Rd along Nuffield Ave to the point of impact — between the intersections of Kettle Cres and Nash St. This was a distance of about 1.2km.

Police said that no other vehicle was involved in the incident and Cotter died from injuries sustained in the fall, not from being hit by another car.

A Givealittle page was set up to support Cotter’s widow and children.

Cotter’s sister, Robyn Rawiri, has previously spoken of her brother as a loving, caring father, brother, son and mate.

“[He] was a provider,” she said.

Cotter played for Eskview and Districts Rugby Football Club as a winger and was remembered by club member Jake Pocock as a “top bloke, great rugby player and family man”.

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.