Whakapumautanga Clarke, (from left) Daniel Chase and Cody Griffin in the Rotorua High Court last year. Photo / File
Whakapumautanga Clarke, (from left) Daniel Chase and Cody Griffin in the Rotorua High Court last year. Photo / File
One of the three Mongrel Mob members jailed over the fatal shooting of Kinloch man Scott John Henry has failed in his bid to have his sentence reduced.
Cody Paul Griffin, 25, was jailed for 10 years nine months in the Rotorua High Court on December 14 last year afterbeing found guilty by a jury of Henry's manslaughter and of a related aggravated robbery charge.
Griffin lodged an appeal against the length of his jail term in the Court of Appeal.
Griffin's co-offenders were also imprisoned. On August 20, 2018 a jury in the High Court at Hamilton found Whakapumautanga "Cookie" Clarke, 25, guilty of 48-year-old Henry's murder and aggravated robbery.
Clarke is serving a sentence of life imprisonment on the charges and must serve at least 17 years before he is eligible to apply for parole.
Daniel Chase, 22, was jailed for eight years and one month for aggravated robbery.
Their sentences relate to Henry's death on July 20, 2017, when the trio went to Henry's Whangamata Rd home in Kinloch, on the outskirts of Taupō, intending to steal drugs and money.
When Henry's partner came out of the outside toilet-shower block they confronted her and demanded to know where Henry was. Two of the men went to look for him.
Almost immediately a shotgun shot rang out, hitting Henry in the chest, and the trio sped off, leaving their victim for dead.
The Court of Appeal heard Griffin's sentence appeal on August 8.
The appellant judge's written decision revealed Griffin's lawyer John Munro argued the sentence starting point of 12 years adopted by Judge Sarah Katz was "too high" when compared to similar more serious cases.
Munro also submitted that Judge Katz had erred in treating the detention of Henry's partner as an aggravating consideration.
"Rather, it was undertaken to protect her from seeing the confrontation between Mr Henry and Mr Griffin's associates," he said.
Munro said the sentence starting point should have been between eight years six months and nine years six months with room for a 10 per cent discount for Griffin's pre-trial guilty plea.
Scott Henry who was shot and killed. Photo / File
The appellant judges said while Judge Katz appeared to have erred about the exact sequence of events concerning Henry's partner, "that consideration was not material to her sentencing analysis".
"In the present appeal. Mr Griffin may be described as the joint leader of the attack... and a starting point of 12 years imprisonment is not beyond the available range," they said.
"It follows that we are not persuaded that the judge erred in sentencing, Mr Griffin. Nor are we persuaded that a different sentence should have been imposed.
