Appeal against road rage jail sentence dismissed

File photo / NZ Herald

A Rotorua man who used a gun in a road rage attack has had an appeal against his lengthy sentence for attempted murder and assault with a pistol thrown out.

Richard Marsters, 50, became enraged when another driver flashed his lights and tooted his horn at him. Marsters followed the motorist, confronting him and shooting him in the jaw and arm.

Jailed a year ago for nine-and-a-half years, Marsters' sentence was cumulative on an earlier four-year prison term for unrelated serious drug offending.

He went to the Court of Appeal claiming the starting point was too high and that the effective end sentence offended the totality principle. However, he abandoned an appeal against his conviction.

The extreme road rage incident happened in central Rotorua about 9pm on November 11, 2000. Marsters hit the other driver with a pistol he was carrying in his pocket, then pointed it at the victim's head and threatened him.

As the other man retreated he was struck in the chest with the gun. The injured man and his passenger wrestled Marsters back against his car bonnet but he managed to free his hand and fire two shots which struck the victim in the face and in the bicep.

Staggering to the ground, the victim was then hit several times about the head with the pistol.

The Court of Appeal judges noted Marsters' 30-year history of violence and drug offending and his lack of remorse. He had been a serial offender all his adult life and had been imprisoned on numerous occasions.

They said they found submissions on the length of the current sentence "unpersuasive."

"This was without question a case of very serious violence," the judgement reads.

They accepted the sentencing judge's assessment of the totality issue "in all the circumstances" and dismissed the appeal.