Two men found guilty of murdering a low-level drug dealer during a robbery gone wrong in North Canterbury have been sentenced today - but in a rare move, one offender has avoided a life sentence.
Jason William Baker, 40, and Shaun Murray Robert Innes, 38, were found guilty by a High Court jury in Christchurch of murdering 51-year-old Rangiora man Tony John Lochhead on September 13 last year.
Today, a judge sentenced Baker to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for his role in using a hunting knife to fatally stab Mr Lochhead and wound his brother Peter Graham Lochhead, 54.
However, Justice Rachel Dunningham took the rare decision not to sentence Innes to life imprisonment.
She sentenced him to 10 years in jail, with no non-parole period, given that his role on the fateful night was to simply knock on the Lochheads' door and lure them outside before he ran away.
Justice Dunningham told father-of-three Innes in the dock: "I am satisfied that you were not present when the fatal stab wound occurred. The jury was clearly of the view that you went there with a common intention to rob the Lochheads and that you had played your part in enticing them out of the flat."
The trial heard that the pair had arrived at the Lochheads' flat with the plan of robbing them of drugs, guns, and cash.
But while Baker, from Christchurch, attacked them, Innes ran off.
The brothers fought back in self-defence.
Baker cut Tony on his chest, arms, face, neck, ear and lower arm with a hunting knife.
"He got me, he got me f****** good", he said, before collapsing to the floor, with blood coming out of his throat. Peter received non-fatal cut injuries.
Innes and Baker were arrested in the following days.
They both denied charges of murder and aggravated wounding.
Today, Peter Lochhead told Innes and Baker that he could not forgive them.
"I have to trust the law will give some kind of justice to my brother," he said in a victim impact statement read to the court.
"Life will never be the same again."
The brothers' niece Jasmine Lochhead, a 22-year old university student, told the killers that she hoped that would "commit seriously" to making changes to their lives.
Tracey Ross, Tony's sister-in-law, said she hoped that while inside jail the pair would "think about the life they ripped away from our family".
Crown prosecutor Pip Currie said the suffering and effects of the "robbery gone wrong, [that] turned into a murder" will be long-standing for the family.
Innes had clearly known why they were there that night, Ms Currie said.
But she accepted his culpability was lower than Baker's, and therefore should be given a lesser sentence.
Defence counsel Gerald Nation rejected notions that Innes should receive a lesser sentence, in what he described as being a "joint enterprise".
Baker had written a letter to the court where he expressed his sorrow, he said.
In reference to Peter Lochhead having to watch his brother die, he wrote: "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."
"I deserve everything I get," he said.
Mr Nation said the case highlighted the tragic consequences of people addicted to hard drugs - a hypothesis Justice Rachel Dunningham agreed with.
Defence counsel Michael Knowles said Innes "didn't think it would go as wrong as this".
He argued that Innes' role was greatly less than Baker's.
Justice Dunningham agreed. She had "no hesitation" in concluding that it would have been unjust to impose a life sentence on Innes.
- Kurt Bayer of NZME. News Service
