SENTENCED: Hapeta Manley was sentenced for failing to stop after hitting Israel Jack on Te Ngae Rd last year. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER 010414SP3
SENTENCED: Hapeta Manley was sentenced for failing to stop after hitting Israel Jack on Te Ngae Rd last year. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER 010414SP3
A Rotorua man has been sentenced to six months' home detention for failing to stop after he ran over Israel Jack.
Hapeta Kane Hori Manley, a 29-year-old bartender, was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court yesterday after he previously admitted one count of driving while forbidden and one of failingto stop after an accident to ascertain whether anyone had been injured.
He was also fined $1000 and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
Israel Jack, 20, was found dead on Te Ngae Rd on August 18, 2013.
Judge James Weir told Manley he had a duty of care and he failed to adhere to that.
The judge said Manley had finished work and was driving home along Te Ngae Rd about 4.30am.
"You were driving with your lights on. You felt your front and rear tyres run over him [Mr Jack]. You continued home and made no attempt to stop.
"I've some difficulty with your explanation that you thought you hit a dog and off you went. I've formed the conclusion you wilfully chose to ignore you hit something."
Judge Weir said Mr Jack was lying on the road in Manley's lane along a straight stretch between Pohutakawa Dr and Robinson Ave. Police have been unable to establish how he came to be on the road.
Manley handed himself into the Rotorua police station three days after the incident after seeing media reports.
His lawyer, Rachelle Cavanagh, said Manley had made two poor decisions that night and as a result he would be "haunted by his decision-making".
"He'll spend his life wondering if the outcome would have been different if he had stopped on that occasion," she said.
Mr Jack's father, Rendall Jack, read his victim impact statement to the court.
"I am sure I am not alone when I am often haunted and traumatised and feel so angry by the very thought that my son may have been alive when and even after you ran him over. I cannot and do not believe you didn't know that you had run a solidly built person over when you didn't brake and didn't stop."
He said by failing to stop Manley had impeded the investigation into his son's death.
"I appreciate what you said about closure," Judge Weir said to Mr Jack's family members. "There has to be some closure at some point in time. You have my sympathies."
