Drink-driver Samantha Allen’s jail term quashed, replaced with home detention for fatal crash

Samantha Allen caused a crash in March last year which resulted in the death of a young woman. Photo / Bevan Conley

A woman who has been a “full-on alcoholic and drug addict” since the age of 10 was drunk and had cannabis in her system when she ploughed into a vehicle and killed a young woman.

Now, she has been let out of prison after her sentence was overturned due to the injuries - including shattered bones, a possible amputation due to sepsis, and paralysis - she sustained as a result of the crash.

Samantha Allen was travelling along State Highway 3 in Hangatiki around 8.20pm on March 30 last year when she made a series of dangerous calls on the road.

She briefly mounted a kerb before continuing to weave across the road and over the centre line.

Allen drove on the wrong side of the road at least three times, and at one point travelled in that lane for around 100 metres.

She then failed to make a moderate left turn and crossed the centre line again.

As she did, her vehicle collided head-on with a car being driven by 26-year-old Abigail Edwina Johns. Johns, of Midhirst, Taranaki, died in the crash.

Allen, who suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital, underwent blood tests which showed she was more than three times over the legal alcohol limit for driving, with a reading of 167 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, and was also under the influence of cannabis.

Prior to the crash, she had been convicted on three occasions for driving with an excess breath alcohol level.

On May 3 this year, Allen appeared in Hamilton District Court, where she was sentenced to two years and seven months’ jail on admitted charges of dangerous driving and driving with excess blood alcohol causing death.

But following the hearing, Allen launched a successful appeal against her sentence, with the primary ground of challenge being her medical condition.

The High Court judgment, delivered on October 13, quashed her sentence and replaced it with nine months and two weeks of home detention. It said she was to be released from prison on October 16.

Samantha Allen appealed her jail sentence in the High Court.

According to the decision, Allen shattered her right ankle, broke her left leg and sustained serious injuries to her spine in the crash.

“She says that when originally sentenced, her injuries were largely healing and spinal surgery was to occur once her right ankle was fully healed,” the decision stated, referencing Allen’s affidavit.

However, her medical prognosis at the time of swearing the affidavit in early September was that she had sepsis in her leg and was faced with the possibility of having it amputated.

Allen told the High Court that two days into serving her prison sentence, she lost feeling in her lower back, and this led to her becoming a paraplegic secondary.

Because of her paralysis and isolation in segregation due to her mental health, Allen claimed it had been difficult to get support from prison staff.

She had fallen and suffered another fracture to her right ankle, which required treatment. When she returned to prison with an open wound, she developed sepsis.

Allen was concerned about the prospect of navigating prison with one leg and said in addition to mobility issues, she has also experienced considerable pain due to the snapped rod in her spine.

She has been prescribed pain management medication, but claimed she was not always able to receive it.

Allen told the High Court she was not compatible with a custodial sentence given her physical ailments and she would have support in Te Kūiti if granted home detention.

An end-of-September update from an orthopaedic consultant told the court Allen’s wound was doing reasonably well.

But the doctor said if she has a persisting infection and her medical team cannot get it under control, the only treatment option would be amputation.

Until the infection is settled, Allen cannot receive surgery to repair the metalware in her spine.

Lawyer Phillip Cornege, representing Allen, accepted the sentencing judge’s starting point was within the available range but submitted greater discounts for injuries, hardship in custody, background circumstances, remorse and prospects of rehabilitation should have been applied.

This would have brought the end sentence to within the range where home detention is available.

Crown representative Amy Alcock argued the appeal should be dismissed as Allen’s health had improved since the time the challenge was first launched and the Department of Corrections had confirmed it was able to manage her medical condition while in custody, including in the event she was required to have her leg amputated.

Alcock submitted the overall sentence was not manifestly excessive and home detention was not appropriate.

In his judgment, Justice Ian Gault said despite Allen’s sepsis improving, her condition had still deteriorated since sentencing due to her paralysis.

He ruled that given the fresh information on her health, a greater discount for her condition and the resulting hardship for her in custody should be applied.

In terms of her background, remorse and potential for rehabilitation, Justice Gault also found a greater discount should have been given.

There was a clear causative contribution between Allen’s background, her drug and alcohol issues, and therefore her offending, he said, referencing a cultural report.

“[...] Drugs and alcohol were omnipresent in her life, from starting smoking cigarettes at 9 years old to being a ‘full-on alcoholic and drug addict’ from 10,” the report detailed.

“[It] explains that Ms Allen became introduced to methamphetamine aged 12, and that during her adolescence, she would use methamphetamine and marijuana every day and drink every second to third day.”

The report found she was genuinely remorseful for her offending, and wished to continue seeking help for her mental health and her history of trauma and addiction.

Justice Gault quashed Allen’s previous sentence and then, after applying the higher discounts, landed at an end sentence of 24 months’ imprisonment.

He then converted that to nine months and two weeks of home detention, which took into account the five months she had already spent in custody.

Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff, where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.