Kalib Kerr-Millar then searched her home before stealing the woman’s late husband’s watches and fleeing in her car.
The 27-year-old appeared at the Christchurch District Court on Tuesday, where he admitted two burglaries of elderly people and driving on the wrong side of the road as he left the scene.
He pleaded guilty to a raft of charges including aggravated burglary, theft, assault with a weapon, burglary, unlawfully getting into and taking a motor vehicle and dangerous driving.
According to the summary of facts, on July 12 last year, Kerr-Millar was travelling with an associate from Timaru to Christchurch in a stolen vehicle.
The pair filled up the car with $218 of petrol at a BP station on Evans St, Timaru, and left without paying.
When they were driving through Methven, police noticed the stolen vehicle and used road spikes to deflate its tyres.
The pair then began to overtake other cars at speed, fishtailing across the road and accelerating towards officers preparing to spike the vehicle again.
Between 2.35pm and 7.15pm that day, he went to an 81-year-old’s home in a retirement complex on Ross St, in Darfield.
He entered through the external garage door and attempted to steal a Toyota IST but was unable to start the vehicle because it had a steering lock.
He stole a black shoulder bag containing film, a camera and a pair of socks before leaving.
About 7.15pm, he entered another home at a retirement village in Darfield, through the front door.
The 80-year-old occupant was watching rugby. Kerr-Millar approached her holding a knife and demanded she hand over her money and car keys.
He then looked through her medication before demanding again that she hand over her keys and money.
The woman looked for the keys in a drawer that had some of her late husband’s watches in it. Kerr-Millar grabbed some of the watches and put them in his pocket before searching the drawer for money and taking the woman’s car keys.
He also took her handbag and, holding the knife to the left side of her body, walked her to her car.
She opened the external garage door so he could drive her 2017 Mazda 3 away. As she did so, she closed and locked the internal garage door to get away from him.
When Kerr-Millar realised she had locked the internal door, he crashed through it, pinning her to the wall.
He then placed the knife against her throat and traced it back and forth. Although he did not cut her, she could feel the blade against her neck and thought she was going to die.
She suffered a lumbar sprain as a result of the incident.
Kerr-Millar then left in her car.
Shortly afterwards, police saw him driving erratically at speeds of up to 160kmh on the wrong side of the road in the stolen car when there was heavy rain and surface flooding in the Canterbury region.
Police stopped him and found the stolen black shoulder bag, the woman’s handbag, clothing from the first burglary, watches and a large knife.
Kerr-Millar was remanded in custody until his sentencing in February next year.
- By Emily Moorhouse
- Open Justice multimedia journalist
