One is set to defend a charge of murder at trial, and the other three, including Rangitoheriri, admitted other charges.
Rangitoheriri appeared in the High Court at Rotorua for sentencing yesterday before Justice Graham Lang.
Justice Lang said the offending started after Rangitoheriri advertised a cellphone for sale on social media.
A buyer sent Rangitoheriri a bank account screenshot to confirm payment then collected the cellphone.
After Rangitoheriri discovered no money had been deposited into her account, she contacted the buyer and retrieved the phone via “a third party”.
“You were not satisfied with this outcome,” Justice Lang said.
On the night of August 19, she messaged someone she believed was involved in “fraudulently” obtaining the phone.
“You told this person, ’They’d better be at that house on Trigg, otherwise the whole place will be left [in] ashes’.”
The next day, Rangitoheriri, allegedly with three others, went to a Trigg Ave address.
Rangitoheriri spoke to a woman who claimed to have “little knowledge” about the phone matter.
“You said you wanted to fight her son in retribution for his conduct.”
The group left the address and returned about 30 minutes later, when Ehau was outside.
A violent altercation ensued, and Ehau eventually died from stab injuries.
Defendant lost mother, brother at young age
At sentencing, Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy said Rangitoheriri was the “instigator” of violence in this case.
Despite the phone being returned, she and others returned to the address “armed with weapons”.
The use of weapons and “vigilante actions” were cited as aggravating factors to the offending.
Hinerau Rameka, Rangitoheriri’s lawyer, said she acknowledged the “tragic loss of life”.
Rameka said the mitigating factors included Rangitoheriri losing her mother in “tragic circumstances” at age 7, and a “highly public process” when her half-brother died when she was age 9.
She said Rangitoheriri would have been subjected to factors “well known with gangs” through her father.
“Particularly relevant in this case is the vigilante action ... retaliation is something common within gangs and it’s seen as a sign of weakness if that’s not followed through.”
‘No option’ other than jail
Justice Lang said Rangitoheriri’s offending had several aggravating features, including it being “plainly premeditated”.
She was “clearly an instigator” and displayed “vigilante-type action”.
Justice Lang adopted a starting point of two years and six months’ imprisonment.
He granted her a 20% discount for her guilty pleas and a 10% discount for her youth.
He said that while the offending was “premeditated and serious”, it also showed the hallmarks of “poor judgment and lack of foresight as to likely consequences which young persons are well known”.
Justice Lang said Rangitoheriri’s Section 27 cultural report echoed issues identified in the pre-sentence report.
She was “exposed to gang connections at an early stage”, had an “unsettled upbringing” when her family frequently changed addresses, and her mother and brother died when she was young.
Justice Lang said he had “no doubt” the issues she faced in her early years had a “directive causative link” to how she responded to the attempt of being defrauded of her phone.
“You no doubt view violence as being the appropriate means by which to deal with those who create problems for you.”
He applied a 10% discount to reflect the cultural report.
The discounts reduced her sentence to 18 months’ imprisonment, which meant he could impose a home detention sentence.
He said imprisonment would be “more likely to cement you into an anti-social lifestyle”.
Additionally, at age 19, she still had prospects for rehabilitation … “even though these do not currently appear to be strong”.
He said a home detention sentence would lend itself “most positively to your rehabilitation and reintegration into the community”.
However, he had “no option” but to impose a prison sentence. He would have imposed a home detention sentence had a suitable address been available.
He granted her leave to apply to have the sentence converted to home detention should an appropriate address become available.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
