Israel Jack mystery: Woman in court

Micah Sykes was sentenced in Rotorua District Court for running over Israel Jack as he lay on the road.

A woman who ran over Rotorua man Israel Jack as he lay on Te Ngae Rd has appeared in court.

Micah Rachel Sykes, 20, from Rotorua, was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court yesterday to 100 hours' community work and disqualified from driving for six months after she pleaded guilty to one charge of driving with excess breath alcohol and one charge of possession of cannabis. Her sentence also covered a separate charge of obstructing police for which she had been been offered diversion but failed to complete the conditions.

According to the police summary, Sykes was driving along Te Ngae Rd in the early hours of August 18 last year.

Mr Jack was lying on the road between Pohutukawa Dr and Robinson Ave. He was wearing dark clothing and the adjacent street lighting was not working.

Sykes did not see him and drove straight over him without slowing or swerving. He had been run over by another vehicle about two minutes earlier. Sykes' passenger said he thought they had hit a person so she stopped, swapped seats and the passenger drove the car back where they found Mr Jack dead. The summary said Mr Jack sustained multiple injuries as a result of being run over twice but it couldn't be determined if either of the cars had caused his death.

Sykes was breath tested at the scene and blew 631mg of alcohol per litre of breath - the legal limit is 400mg.

The police then found a plastic bag on the wheel arch of the car and a second bag under the car. In them were small bags of dried cannabis containing a total of 21g of cannabis. Sykes admitted one plastic bag was hers and said the cannabis was for her own use.

Defence lawyer Andy Schulze said Sykes immediately told police she had been driving and was co-operative and helpful.

Mr Schulze asked that Sykes, who had no previous convictions, be given a fine rather than community work so she could move to Perth to work in the mines.

"She has been up front from day one. The court should reward that honesty and integrity," he said.

"It would have been easy for her to hide that [she was the driver ]."

Judge James Weir refused, his request saying Sykes had started to show a pattern of behaviour involving drunkenness - from the "unflattering situation" where she obstructed police arresting a male on July 14 to driving drunk and being in possession of cannabis.

The police investigation into Mr Jack's death is ongoing.