Already eligible for parole

The Herald reports:

A man who killed a stranger after headbutting him during a dispute over a supermarket car park has become eligible for parole – just six months after being sentenced for the death.

Emilio Richard Mac Tanirau Whaanga appeared before the Parole Board late last year, just months after being given a sentence of three years and three months in prison.

In December 2019, the 24-year-old, who at the time was serving a one-year sentence of intensive supervision for stomping on another person’s neck, became angry with a fellow shopper after believing he had parked in an incorrect car park in Lower Hutt.

So he was already on “supervision” for stomping on someone’s neck, which is pretty close to attempted murder. After getting an insanely light sentence for that he then killed someone because he thought they were parking wrongly, and he gets just 39 months for that. And now he is already eligible for parole.

And the Government wants to abolish the three strikes law so he can carry on offending with more ridiculously light sentences.

A police summary of facts read to the court after Tanirau Whaanga pleaded guilty early last year revealed he went off to do his shopping after knocking the man out, leaving him lying on the ground.

On his return from the supermarket he walked back past the victim without bothering to help and tried to drive away. He only stopped when he was blocked by a taxi.

He was arrested by police at the carpark soon after and tried to justify his actions saying the victim had walked into his head.

Sounds remorseful eh.

Tanirau Whaanga read out a letter of remorse to the victim’s family during his sentencing, saying he was “ashamed” and “highly dishonoured”.

“It has broken my heart knowing what has happened . . . forever grieving in sorrow and regret,” he said.

“I’m truly sorry from the bottom of my heart, and God bless.”

Bullshit PR written by his lawyer.