Cayben Rapata-Brookland, 24, of Hanley’s Farm, was sentenced to home detention in the Queenstown District Court this week, despite being told by a judge two years ago he would be sent to prison if he assaulted anyone else.
The defendant was drinking at a bar in town with his two brothers on May 25 when a bouncer asked him to leave because of his drunken state.
The defendant became argumentative and, as the bouncer asked for the brothers’ support to make him leave, punched him in the jaw without warning.
The blow broke the bouncer’s jaw in two places — for which he needed surgery — and permanently damaged two of his teeth.
After the defendant finally left the bar, he approached a stranger in the street and punched him in the head without provocation, sending him stumbling and knocking the hat off his head.
Sentencing Rapata-Brookland on charges of injuring with intent to injure and assault, Judge Mark Williams said the bouncer was unable to work for more than three months, could not eat solid food for six weeks and had to suspend his extramural university study for a semester.
The police were unable to identify the second victim.
Judge Williams said the defendant had nine previous convictions for assault or fighting in public, including three for serious assaults.
The most recent was in 2023, when he was sentenced to six months’ home detention for knocking out a 68-year-old man, causing a brain bleed, also with a coward punch.
He was told then by the sentencing judge further offending would land him in prison.
Counsel Paige Noorland said the key difference between then and now was the defendant’s recent completion of a 30-day retreat in Auckland, paid for by his family, which appeared to have been a "turning point" in his rehabilitation.
He had also been having therapy, attending courses and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to address his alcohol addiction and mental health issues.
The defendant’s grandfather, Hari Rapata, told Judge Williams the family accepted the seriousness of the offending, but prison would only expose his grandson to gangs and criminal networks, leading him further into a cycle of reoffending.
A family-led plan to continue his rehabilitation would not be a "soft option", but instead an evidence-based approach that "an isolated prison cell simply cannot replicate", Mr Rapata said.
From a starting point of three years’ prison, Judge Williams applied discounts for the defendant’s guilty plea, background and time he had served in custody and electronically-monitored bail, to bring the term of imprisonment down to 24 months.
That allowed him to impose a sentence of 12 months’ home detention, along with an order to pay the first victim $2000 reparation.
He told the defendant it was his final chance, and he would not hesitate to send him to prison if he breached any of his home detention conditions.
