10 years minimum for killing

Christopher Heenan. Photo / Stephen Parker

Rotorua artist, carver and tattooist Christopher Allan Heenan has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Ruakawa Newton.

Heenan stabbed Mr Newton in the chest after a friendly drinking session between the two mates in the lounge of a suburban flat turned into an argument on October 11, 2007. Justice Timothy Brewer imposed a minimum non-parole period of 10 years.