R v Samson
[2021] NZHC 1335
•3 June 2021
IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND INVERCARGILL REGISTRY
I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA WAIHŌPAI ROHE
CRI-2019-025-001968
[2021] NZHC 1335
THE QUEEN v
SAMUEL MOSES SAMSON
Hearing: 3 June 2021 Appearances:
M-J Thomas and R W Donnelly for the Crown
J M Ablett-Kerr QC and H T Young for the Defendant
Date:
3 June 2021
SENTENCING REMARKS OF NATION J
[1] Mr Samson, you are for sentence, a jury having found you guilty of murdering Azalia Wilson on 17 November 2019.
[2] I first acknowledge the family and close friends of Ms Wilson. I acknowledge your courage in reading your victim impact reports in Court and the way you did your best to confront Mr Samson with the suffering he has caused. I also commend you, as did Mr Donnelly, for the dignified way in which you conducted yourselves during the trial. In doing so, you honoured your memory of a much loved daughter, sister and close friend. Also the memory of a young mother who was caring for her baby, for Mr Samson’s baby.
R v SAMSON [2021] NZHC 1335 [3 June 2021]
[3] I also acknowledge those in Mr Samson’s whānau who are here to show your support for Mr Samson and to acknowledge that, whatever he had done, Mr Samson you remain part of your family and you have their support.
[4] All those present today need to understand that, before today, I had the benefit of detailed written submissions from counsel, I had a pre-sentence report from Corrections, a s 27 report that I will be referring to later, and cases that were referred to. So, I have had time to carefully consider what I must do, as the Judge in this case, and of course I presided over the trial and heard all the evidence. But it is important that all those who have a particular interest in this case know the background and know what has led to this day, and it does mean that my sentencing will take some time. All I can do is summarise that background.
[5] On 11 July 2019, Azalia Wilson gave birth to a daughter at Dunedin Hospital. The baby was about nine weeks premature. It was later confirmed you were the baby’s father. Without being sure that you were the father, you supported Azalia while she was in hospital and when she first returned to Invercargill with the baby to live with her family.
[6] Once it was confirmed that you were the father, you told Azalia you did not want to be in a relationship with her but you would support her as a mother 150 per cent.
[7]You were then aged about 31. Ms Wilson was aged 21.
[8] But, I accept the evidence that, after that time, you frequently wanted to know what contact Azalia was having with other people, you accused her of being involved with other people and you were controlling and possessive.
[9] On 4 October 2019, Azalia’s father organised for the family to go to a restaurant for dinner. You were invited. Before the dinner, you went to Azalia’s home. You did not like what she was wearing, I am satisfied, quite unreasonably. Although you did not express it this way, you thought she was dressing in a way that might be attractive
to other men. You became angry, abused her and refused to go to the dinner. Later that evening, Azalia posted a picture on social media of the family at dinner. There was a vacant chair which would have been your place if you had been there. You phoned her and abused her, wanting to know who had been in that vacant seat.
[10] Back at the home after dinner, you made an abusive call to Azalia. Azalia’s mother told you, in no uncertain terms, to leave Azalia alone. She heard you say “tell your mother to fuck up or I’ll burn the house down”. Azalia was frightened and locked all the doors of the house. The next day you were apologetic for what you said. But, after that, you were not allowed at the Wilton house.
[11] There were times however, usually at a weekend, when Azalia, you and the baby would stay at a motel so you could have time together.
[12] On a Friday night in October 2019, Azalia and the baby stayed a night with her close friend Terina King. You dropped them off at Ms King’s home. During that night, you made a number of video calls to Azalia. In some you were nice, in some you were angry. At about 3.00 am, you arrived at the house and banged on the door. Ms King told Azalia to let you in because she thought you were going to smash the door. You came in, went to a knife block in the kitchen, grabbed two knives, one in each hand, and threatened Azalia and Ms King. You head-butted Azalia while she was holding the baby. You threatened Ms King that if she told anyone what had happened, you knew where her family lived and you would kill them.
[13] On Friday 15 November 2019, Azalia booked a room at the Bavarian Motel and went there with the baby, intending to stay until the Sunday. This was to be a time when you would be with Azalia and the baby.
[14] During that Friday, you and a few people gathered at the motel to mark the birthday of your son. He lives with his mother away from Invercargill. The mother of that child has a protection order against you. You were not having contact with your son but you wanted to mark his birthday.
[15] On the Saturday night, you went to a gathering at the home of your friend Reon Taki. Azalia and the baby stayed at the motel. Others who talked to you at the party considered you were just your normal self. One person remembered you introducing yourself and saying you would not be drinking very much because you would be with your baby in the morning. You left this gathering around 9.00 pm. When you left, you told one of the others that you were going back to the motel and would not be returning to the party because you wanted to be in good form to look after your baby on the Sunday.
[16] A friend drove you back to the motel and waited outside. You told him you were going back to the motel to ask if you could go out drinking. You were in the motel a little longer than he expected. He went into the motel to see what was up. He saw you kiss Ms Wilson good bye and leave with no apparent sign of trouble between the two of you. You left the motel around 10.12 pm and went back to Reon Taki’s party. You told someone there that you had given Ms Wilson money, so she was happy for you to go back to the party.
[17] Around 12.30 am, the gathering moved to the Tillermans bar. You went there too, arriving at 1.05 am.
[18] At 1.20 am, you left Tillermans and walked to Dee Street where, at 1.23 am, you were picked up by a taxi. The taxi driver dropped you off near the Bavarian Motel at 1.42 am.
[19] Around 2.30 am, a person, who was staying in the unit next to the unit where Ms Wilson was in bed, was woken by banging coming from Ms Wilson’s unit. It sounded like a table banging against a wall. A child was crying. The person heard a male saying repeatedly and angrily “fuck you cunt”. The person who heard this was trying to get to sleep. The next audible thing he heard was a male saying “you want to fuck my baby momma” and then also “you want a go”. He assumed the person saying this was on the phone because there was no reply to either of those statements.
[20] At around 2.30 am, you made a Facebook Messenger call to an associate of yours, who you knew well. This person was well known to the Police. He was not someone who would normally go to the Police to have them deal with a problem he might have with other people. I heard that from the Police. At the house, there was a female friend of this associate. Both these people saw, from the face appearing with the video call, that it was you making the call. They responded to the call as being from “Munchies”, the name you are commonly known by.
[21] You taunted the associate saying something like “you fuck my baby momma”. You said to the associate too something like “look what you have done to my bitch” or “look what I have done to your bitch”. Then you used your cell phone to show the associate the battered head of Ms Wilson. The woman who was with him saw what she said was the disturbing image of the head and face of a woman so badly battered that she was unrecognisable. What was shown to the associate and his friend was not recorded or preserved as a photograph but I have absolutely no doubt that they both saw the face of Azalia Wilson who you were with when you made that call.
[22] The associate biked to Kew Road. He expected you to turn up but you did not. He recorded on Facebook where he was and sent you a message showing he was there. During the trial I saw that message and the image.
[23] He then went back to his house. The woman who was with him wanted the Police to obtain help for whoever it was they had seen so badly beaten up. She made two 111 calls, first at 2.50 am and then at 3.00 am. The person taking the call wanted to know who was making the call and where they were, but the woman would not give the Police that information. Those calls were brief. The Police must have traced the number from which the calls had been made. They phoned that number and spoke to the woman who had called them. Although the Police tried to get more information, all she would say was that Sam Samson had made a call and had shown her the battered face of someone. She did not know where this had happened. Again, she would not say who or where she was. She made it clear that she and the person she was with did not want to be involved with the Police but she wanted the Police to find where the beaten woman was and to help her.
[24] At around 3.07 am, [a vehicle] with [a] phone in it arrived at the motel. Soon after that, the vehicle with the […] phone in it was tracked while making its way towards West Plains Road, consistent with it travelling towards the Oreti River. The Police later located the knife from the motel, a blue singlet that had been worn by Azalia, her baby’s bassinette and other items that had been taken from the motel at the Oreti River.
[25] Around 4.30 am, the associate turned up at the house of his former partner. He woke her and asked if she was alright.
[26]Later in the morning, you were driven to an address in Invercargill. Around
5.00 am, you borrowed a car which had been parked at that address.
[27] Over that Sunday, there was information in the media that a body had been found at the Bavarian Motel and the Police were looking for you. There was also information circulating on social media amongst your associates that Ms Wilson’s body had been found and you had killed her.
[28] On that Sunday, you drove to Christchurch and, in the evening, met with a friend. She had not seen the news or been party to the social media messaging about what might have happened. She saw that you were distressed. She asked what had happened. You told her that you had snapped. She was in a car with you as you drove to a motel. She then read an article in the media about a female having been found dead in a motel. You told her that something had happened in the motel and you were going to hand yourself in to the Police in the morning.
[29] I am satisfied that, with all that was said between you and this witness, as she described in her evidence, you were then acknowledging that you had killed Ms Wilson. At your request, she went to the Warehouse and bought some clothes, body wash and other items for you and two cell phones. You gave her the money and told her you wanted the cell phones because the Police would be tracking you.
[30] On the Monday, you went back to Gore and met your friend Reon Taki. You told Reon Taki that it happened quick, when you were angry about the associate and Azalia. You also called and left messages on the phone of the mother of another daughter of yours who lived in Christchurch. The theme of your messages and the conversation was that you were sorry to her for what had happened and all that had resulted. Both that mother and Reon Taki encouraged you to give yourself up to the Police. On the Monday night, Reon Taki took you to his father’s address near Wairio. They intended for you to rest there for the night and anticipated that in the morning you would give yourself up to the Police.
[31] But, during the night, you left that address and drove to a point near the Clifden Bridge near Tuatapere. You were picked up in the early hours of the morning and taken to the Ascot Hotel by your sister.
[32] At approximately 8.00 am on Tuesday 19 November 2019, you gave yourself up to the Police at the Invercargill Police station.
[33] At around 11.00 am on Sunday 17 November 2019, the Police went into the Bavarian Motel unit and found Azalia deceased, lying naked across a double bed. Ms Wilson had been brutally killed. Her baby was not in the motel.
[34] I need, unfortunately for the family, to detail some of the injuries and evidence as to that which I heard evidence of.
[35] The autopsy identified that she had suffered extensive bruising of the entire right side of her face, a fracture of the jaw and bruising around both eyes. There were skull fractures and extensive subdural haemorrhages. There was extensive bruising and abrasions under the left side of the jaw. There were two bruises over the front of her neck consistent with choking. There was a 45 mm long full thickness incised wound through her left cheek. There was bruising at the junction of the left neck and chest, and a 50 mm bruise on her right upper chest. There were a series of bruises on the right side of her abdomen. There was a 100 mm x 50 mm bruise on her left lower back and a 60 mm diameter bruise on her right lower back. There were stab wounds
to the left of her navel, a stab wound to her right flank and a stab wound to her right lower back. There were two stab wounds just above her pubic area which would not have been life-threatening. They could have been inflicted when she was unconscious or even after her death. She had bruising on her right shoulder and right upper arm. There were significant cuts on her left thigh, right lower leg and left lower leg. The pathologist considered that a number of the cuts could have been defensive wounds. In other words, caused as she struggled to defend herself against your attack.
[36] The pathologist considered the cause of death was blunt force injuries of the head, face, neck and abdomen with there having been compression of the neck and also incised and stab wounds of the face, neck, trunk and limbs.
[37] Just as the two people who had observed the Facebook Messenger video call had said when you showed them what you had done, her face and body were so badly battered that she was unrecognisable.
[38] You bashed Azalia about the head sufficient to cause fractures to her jaw and skull. You punched her with a closed fist. At some point, you stamped on her naked torso, leaving the foot print of your boot. She has suffered bruising to the neck, consistent with choking. You obtained a knife from the motel drawer, a knife later found at the Oreti River. You cut Azalia on the face, leaving a significant laceration next to her mouth. She had a number of deep cuts to her thighs and torso.
[39] The ESR examination of blood established there had been significant bleeding on the bed. At some point, Ms Wilson had also been in the bathroom, bleeding, but she had been left on the bed where she was ultimately found.
[40] The two stab wounds above her pubic area were not life-threatening. I am satisfied they were inflicted to humiliate her, demonstrate your anger towards her and punish her for what you believed had been her infidelity to you.
Submissions
[41] I deal now with the submissions that have been made, very carefully, by all counsel.
[42] The Crown refer to various aggravating features of what was clearly a brutal killing. They refer to aggravating features relating to you personally because of your prior convictions. They say life imprisonment has to be imposed and the only issue on sentencing is the minimum period of imprisonment (MPI). They argue that s 104 of the Sentencing Act 2002 applies, so the Court must impose a minimum term of 17 years.
[43] Mr Donnelly also referred to other cases where the Court has had to sentence offenders for murder in the context of a domestic relationship.1 He submits that an MPI of 17 years would be consistent with sentences imposed in similar cases, putting s 104 to one side.
[44] Today, Mr Donnelly acknowledged the information that had been provided just quite recently through the s 27 report and what you had told the writer of that report about your background. In my view, generously, he accepted that those were matters that the Court could take into account and that they were matters that often are taken into account. But, he said, even if those matters were to be acknowledged, ultimately the Court has to decide whether it would be manifestly unjust for you to be sentenced to life imprisonment with an MPI of 17 years. He suggested that any credit that you might have been entitled to and that might have been appropriate, that could mean the MPI would be less than 17 years, would be matched by the uplift that the Court would have to consider because of your criminal record and your history. And, he basically submitted that one would cancel the other out so that your sentence still has to be life imprisonment with an MPI of 17 years.
1 R v Mete [2020] NZHC 1573; Te Hiko v R [2019] NZCA 41; R v Akash [2016] NZHC 2348; and
R v Eddy [2014] NZHC 1543.
[45] Your counsel, Mrs Ablett-Kerr QC, submitted the appropriate interpretation of the jury’s verdict is that, sometime between 2.00 am and 2.40 am on 17 November 2019, likely prompted by irrational jealousy, you became enraged and violently assaulted Ms Wilson and that her injuries were the result of serious violence. Mrs Ablett-Kerr drew attention to the pathologist’s evidence that some of the wounds may have been inflicted after Ms Wilson’s death.
[46] As to the aggravating features the Crown had referred to, your counsel submits this should not be considered as a premeditated murder. They submit it was the result of a relatively sudden but highly violent and irrational rage, consistent with evidence that you told others it was quick and you had snapped, and the evidence of others that, when at the party, you had been acting in a caring way. They suggest the fact that this was domestic violence should not automatically result in a longer sentence by way of general deterrence and denunciation. They suggest the way to deal with this acknowledged widespread concern as to domestic violence in New Zealand is through education.
[47] By way of mitigation as to you personally, Mrs Ablett-Kerr referred, in detail, to information in a s 27 report that was obtained from an Invercargill solicitor, Ms Keri Kereru. She reported on what you and your mother had said about your upbringing and the time you spent in State care and on the street when you were young, and the way this has affected you.
[48] Mrs Ablett-Kerr reminded the Court that the purposes and principles of sentencing include assisting in an offender’s rehabilitation and reintegration and that the Court must impose the least restrictive outcome that is appropriate in the circumstances.
[49] Your counsel accepts that the murder falls within the ambit of s 104(1)(e) of the Sentencing Act. She however argues that, with your particular background and the matters referred to in the s 27 report, it would be manifestly unjust for you to have an MPI of 17 years. She argued that an appropriate MPI would be in the region of 15 and a half years.
My analysis
[50] I need to hold you accountable for the harm you have done and make it clear how the Court denounces what you have done. I need to deter you and others from committing the same or similar sort of offence. I need to protect the community from you, particularly women who you might be in a relationship with. Amongst other principles that are important in your sentencing, is the need for consistency with sentences for similar offending and information concerning the effect of your offending on the victims, including Ms Wilson’s whānau.
[51] The loss of life is inherent in murder but, in this case, the harm you have done is an aggravating feature. You killed a young woman who had so much to live for and who was committed to doing her very best for her daughter, also your daughter. You deprived your daughter of the love and support of her mother.
[52] It is an aggravating feature of this offending that it occurred in the context of a domestic relationship.
[53] Associated with that was that this murder involved a gross breach of trust. You and Ms Wilson may not have been in a relationship where you were living together but, as parents, you shared a baby daughter who you were responsible for. If only for the sake of your daughter, Ms Wilson should have been able to trust you to keep her from harm. Instead of honouring that trust, you killed her.
[54] Ms Wilson was vulnerable. She was vulnerable because of the time and circumstances in which you attacked her, when she had no other adults near who could come to her defence, when your attack on her occurred in the early hours of the morning when she would have had no warning of what you were going to do. She was vulnerable because of the difference between you in size and strength.
[55] It was an aggravating feature of the murder that you used a weapon in the attack. Some of the wounds were inflicted when you were attacking her with a knife and she was trying to defend herself, but there was the significant cut to her face. A
sharp weapon was used to inflict the stab wounds just above her pubic area. She may not have been alive or conscious when those wounds were inflicted but that wounding, whenever it occurred, was of a particularly callous nature.
[56] The violence which killed Ms Wilson was premeditated. I am satisfied that, for weeks before you killed her, perhaps throughout the time you were involved with her when she was back in Invercargill and living with her mother, you believed that, in some way, she was involving herself, or could involve herself with other men in a way that you would not tolerate and that you would be jealous of. You demonstrated that with the evidence as to what happened when Ms Wilson’s family went to the restaurant and from what occurred on the night she was staying with her friend and you ended up bashing on the door of that house at 3.00 am. Ms Wilson was aware of the potential for violence, as she demonstrated when she locked all the doors at her mother’s home after your angry outburst towards the family on the night of the dinner, and the way she initially kept the door shut on you when she and her baby were spending a night at her friend’s place.
[57] I do not know what prompted you to latch onto the associate, who you called on Facebook showing what you had done, as a person she was involved with, but you must have developed that belief that there was such an involvement before you left Tillermans in the early hours of Sunday 17 November 2019.
[58] I am satisfied that you knew you were going to be violent towards Azalia when you got into the taxi on Dee Street and, during the trip towards the motel, you knew what you were going to do when you got there. I am satisfied, from the taxi driver’s evidence, that throughout that trip you were in an agitated state and you knew that something bad was going to happen and that it would have consequences for you. That was why you insisted on giving the taxi driver $150 for what was only a $15 fare. English was not the taxi driver’s first language but he understood you to be agitated about something to do with family. I have been urged by your counsel to treat the taxi driver’s evidence, as to what you said to him before you got out of the taxi, with caution because the taxi driver had not provided that detail when first spoken to by the Police. I accept, from all the taxi driver said, that he was telling the truth when he
recalled that, before getting out of the taxi, you said to him that he would see you in the news, or words to that effect. So, you knew before you went into that motel that you were going to inflict extreme violence on Ms Wilson.
[59] I acknowledge you told friends that you snapped and that it was quick. I do not consider those statements likely reflected what actually happened. Her death did not occur quickly. She suffered a sustained beating. She was able to go from the bedroom where the main attack occurred to the bathroom. I consider that, when you made those statements to your friends, you were trying to minimise the horror of what you had done. I consider that what you said in making those statements was as dishonest as your statements to several people that you loved Ms Wilson. A person who genuinely loved the mother of their child would not have been as controlling, possessive and threatening as you were in your relationship with her.
[60] Your killing of Ms Wilson did not result from a sudden and short-lived rage. In the conversations you had in the days immediately after her death, you were continuing to express extreme anger about the supposed relationship she had with the associate. You expressed a wish to kill him if you could, which would have been just as you had killed Ms Wilson. You told the mother of your daughter in Christchurch that you wanted to wipe the associate out. I am satisfied that you had been similarly angry and intent on violence towards Ms Wilson when you went back to the motel in the taxi.
[61] In certain conversations that occurred after that night, you said you were sorry for what you had done but, to the extent you have apologised, it has been because of the consequences for your family of what you have done. There had, I would say up until today, been no tangible acceptance of responsibility or remorse for what you did to Ms Wilson and for the devastation that resulted for her family. That is one of the ways in which there is a significant distinction in this case from what happened in the case of Mete which Mrs Ablett-Kerr referred to me.2 I said up until today because I watched you as you heard the victim impact reports being read.
2 R v Mete, above n 1.
[62] During the trial, you remained completely unemotional except for one point and that was when the pathologist was going through the evidence. Throughout the trial, you simply looked straight ahead and were, as I say, unresponsive. But when the pathologist was going through his evidence, you had your head down in your hands, you could not look up and look ahead. To me, that was a time when perhaps you showed and acknowledged the horror of what you did.
[63] Today I saw, from your face and the way you were reacting, real upset at hearing from the family, of the grief they have been caused. So, I acknowledge that. And, it is because of that, that there is hope for you. Because that sort of emotion which you showed is consistent with your having a degree of compassion and kindness that was spoken of in the references that were put before me today from people who knew you in a different way.
[64] Every murder is callous and involves violence but an aggravating feature of this offending is the extreme violence you inflicted on Ms Wilson. I do not need to describe again the injuries that she suffered.
[65] With all the evidence I heard in this trial, I am satisfied that your belief Ms Wilson was involved in a relationship with the associate was irrational.
[66] In a similar way to you perhaps having a delusion about that relationship, in phone calls you made to your mother in the early hours of the Tuesday morning, you demonstrated an intense and irrational belief that the Police were going to shoot you, which led you to flee from Reon Taki’s house and drive during the night towards the Clifden Bridge. It was irrational because, although the Police were armed and regarded you as dangerous, with the support you had from your friends, you had the option of telling the Police where you were and of giving yourself up to them in a manner where you would have been safe, Just as you were when you walked into the Invercargill Police Station on the Tuesday morning.
[67] Putting s 104 to one side, the aggravating features of this murder were such that an appropriate starting point would have been life imprisonment with an MPI of 17 years.
[68] As your counsel responsibly accepts, s 104 does apply. This was a murder committed with “a high level of brutality, cruelty, depravity, or callousness”.3 You inflicted injuries to Ms Wilson’s head that were so brutal as to leave her unrecognisable. There was particular callousness in the wounds you inflicted to her pubic area. There was a high level of callousness in your leaving her, the mother of your child, unrecognisable, either deceased or close to death and naked in a motel room for others to, at some point, discover.
[69] Through s 104, Parliament has said that the minimum period of imprisonment must be 17 years unless that would be manifestly unjust.
[70] Your counsel urges me to take into account the information put before the Court through the s 27 report. If the information you and your mother gave to the writer of that report is true, then you suffered from an appalling upbringing, […], that you were diagnosed as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as a young child, that you tried to kill yourself at the ages of 6, 8 and 11, and suffered both physical and sexual abuse when in State homes.
[71] The value of this report is however limited through the fact it is based purely on what you and your mother have told the report writer. You described the person you had spoken to, when talking to the probation officer who wrote the pre-sentence report, as being a psychologist.
[72] She is not a psychologist, she is a lawyer, albeit with the benefit of being Māori with academic achievements regarding Māori society, Te Reo, Māori history, Māori land law, the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori media. But those qualifications do not mean that I have to give more weight to what she says you told her. But I acknowledge
3 Sentencing Act 2002, s 104(1)(e).
what Mrs Ablett-Kerr said in that she was a person who perhaps you had been willing to open up to in ways that you have found difficult, perhaps impossible, in ways that you were not prepared to open up to when you were speaking to the Department of Corrections probation officer.
[73] Ms Kereru also interviewed your mother, and she provided information which was consistent with what you had told Ms Kereru.
[74] In the case of Mete, there were two detailed psychologist reports which gave the Court the benefit of independent expert information as to the offender’s background.4 Given the reliance in that case, I should also say that I have re-read that case. There are significant distinctions in that case from yours. One of them was that Mr Mete pleaded guilty and acknowledged the offending, he had a history of drug addiction and there are significant differences in other ways from your case.
[75] I am concerned that I did not have the benefit of independent information which may well have shown that the information you had given to Ms Kereru was the whole picture because there are circumstances in which a background like that will lead to a reduction in an otherwise appropriate starting point sentence. You refused to discuss your upbringing with the probation officer who prepared the pre-sentence report for this sentencing. You told her it was because you had spoken of all of that to a psychologist a few days earlier. You have previously been sentenced to imprisonment. A probation officer then would have had to prepare a report for your sentencing. That probation officer would have wanted to know what, if anything, you had to say about your upbringing. If there had been any of the information which has been referred to in that s 27 report, it was certainly information which a court needed to have at the time of your earlier sentencing, as indeed it needs to have now.
[76] There is also some information in the s 27 report which is not consistent with information in the pre-sentence report prepared by the probation officer. There is no indication in the s 27 report that any of your foster care placements were safe or
4 At [18].
supportive of you. The probation officer preparing the pre-sentence report however, with your agreement, contacted someone who continues to be a friend to you, a person from one of the families you were fostered with. This friend said you had lived with his family from the age of 7 or 8 for about four years, that his family still considers you a brother. He said that he did not know you as an aggressive person, describing you as “a fantastic loving caring guy who has the family at the forefront of his life”. Despite knowing you through four years of your life and at a time when, according to what you told the report writer, you were a very troubled child, he was flabbergasted at what had happened with Ms Wilson. What he said about your time with that family is now supported by a reference that I received from his mother. There was clearly one family you were placed with who you did not suffer from.
[77] The s 27 report informs me that your te taha wairua (spiritual wealth), te taha hinengaro (mental and emotional wellbeing), and te taha whānau (family strength) have all been impaired because of a history of family violence, sexual abuse, physical and mental abuse and layers of unresolved grief. Despite that, the pre-sentence report says that you were proud of managing to be in paid employment between the ages of 18 to 28. I now have references that show you were rightly proud of what you achieved in this regard.
[78] I do proceed on the basis that some or even most of the information in the s 27 report as to your background might be true, but I do not consider the information in that report could reduce the culpability or blameworthiness of what you did to Ms Wilson.
[79] The information in the report does not explain how, in your relationships with women with whom you have had children, you have been intensely distrustful, possessive, controlling and jealous. That background does not explain why you could not tolerate the prospect of someone you were involved with being involved socially with others in a way that you could not control. The background does not explain why you think that, when a woman you are involved with does not act in the way you want, you are entitled to inflict on them or threaten them with the most serious violence.
[80] There is no mention in the s 27 report of your witnessing violence between your parents after the incident when you were four and your parents separated. There is no mention in the s 27 report of your witnessing in the foster care placements violence between people in relationships of the sort that you have been guilty of.
[81] The pre-sentence report says you are close to your whānau. In intercepted telephone conversations you had with your mother early in the morning of the Tuesday before you gave yourself up to the Police, you thanked her for the love she had shown towards you.
[82] Had there been a basis for me to have regard to your upbringing as a mitigating factor relating to you personally, I do consider it would have been more than matched with what would have been an appropriate uplift for your offending history. Your first conviction for male assaults female was in 2006. You received a deferred sentence in 2010 for a common assault in the nature of family violence. On 10 July 2018, you were sentenced to one year and 10 months’ imprisonment for offences of contravening a protection order, injuring with intent to injure and theft in a family violence context for offences committed on 29 September 2017. You were sentenced for those offences on 10 July 2018. You were subject to sentence release conditions at the time you killed Ms Wilson.
[83] During your trial, the Court heard what I can only describe as harrowing and chilling evidence from a former partner of yours, who also had a child to you. She was in a relationship with you for around two years. She recalled a first incident when you punched her multiple times in the face, enough to cause her to bleed a lot over the sheets of a bed. You grabbed the hair on her head and pushed her face into the bed so she could not breath. You kicked her repeatedly in the stomach. She was trying to tell you to calm down. As you beat her, you threatened her with more violence. A second incident occurred not long after your son was born. She remembered you becoming extremely angry with her, kicking her to the ground, choking her from behind and threatening her as you did so. She thought she was going to stop breathing. She remembered waking up on the couch and found she had wet herself when unconscious. Afterwards you said to her “you’re only breathing because I let you”. You told her
that, if she told anyone, “you would kill her”. Her evidence was compelling. She showed considerable courage in being a witness.
[84] The pre-sentence report said that you refused to discuss the relationship you had with Ms Wilson and you denied having been in a relationship with her, as you had done with Corrections during the management of your release conditions. The probation officer advises that, until you are willing and able to open up and discuss and explore what a healthy relationship might look like, you remain a high risk of reoffending in a violent manner against any female you might be in a relationship with or through links you have by way of your children. Your overall risk of harm, based on the current offending and your past offending, was assessed as being high. With all the evidence I heard, I agree with that assessment.
[85] I consider that, with your previous offending, the need for deterrence and protection of the public would have required an uplift that would have more than matched any discount that might have been available because of the way you were damaged by your upbringing.
[86] There is thus no basis for me to find there would be a manifest injustice in your being subject to 17 years’ minimum period of imprisonment which s 104 would otherwise require me to impose.
[87] You will be an older person before you are released from prison if the Parole Board ever considers it will be safe for you to be in the community. If and when you are released by the Parole Board, it will be under conditions designed to keep the community safe. If you breach such conditions or are in any way seen to be a risk of causing further harm, you will be recalled to prison.
[88] It is important that you and all those who have been affected by Ms Wilson’s death recognise that the sentence for murder is truly a life sentence. But I recognise that no sentence can make up for the death of Azalia Wilson.
[89] But, even with the lengthy time you must spend in prison, there is potential for you to work towards a situation where the Parole Board might one day consider your potential release on parole. And, I acknowledge the information that I was given by Mrs Ablett-Kerr as to your appreciating that ending your own life would not bring satisfaction or compensate for the suffering that you have caused as far as Ms Wilson’s family is concerned. You do still have potential.
[90] You say you have a connection to your Marae. You have the support of your family. You have the support of the people who provided references for you. A number of these refer to your capacity to show kindness and compassion towards others and the love you express for your children. During the trial, I heard evidence from some of your friends. They knew what you had done and why you were on the run from the Police. They were compassionate enough to want you to give yourself up to the Police and to help you do this. They were concerned for your safety. In their actions, they gave you an example of compassion which was completely lacking in the way you killed the mother of your child. But, perhaps it is an example which you will remember when you work towards making something of your life later on. Even with a life sentence, you will have the opportunity to do so.
[91] There will however be a significant risk for any woman you might be in a relationship with unless you can acknowledge that, the way in which you sought to control the lives of women you were in a relationship with and the way you were or threatened to be violent with women, put them at the risk of huge harm. The tragedy for all present here today is that, with Ms Wilson, that harm was her death.
[92] Mr Samson, please stand. Following your conviction for the murder of Azalia Wilson, I sentence you to life imprisonment with a minimum period of imprisonment of 17 years.
[93]Please stand down.
Solicitors:
Preston Russell Law, Invercargill
J M Ablett-Kerr QC, Barrister, Dunedin H T Young, Barrister, Invercargill.
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