In today’s headlines with Chereè Kinnear the most burgled neighbourhoods revealed, debate over speed limit increases and cardiologists warn of a heart services crisis.
A woman who helped a man accused of a downtown Auckland murder evade arrest by fleeing the scene on Lime scooters then arranging for a safehouse at an Airbnb has been sentenced to five months’ home detention.
But in late February she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
On Tuesday morning she appeared before Justice Andrew Becroft in the High Court at Auckland to learn her fate.
Co-defendant Dariush Talagi, 25, turned himself in three months after the shooting and has since pleaded not guilty to murdering Tuuholoaki and wounding another man with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He awaits trial next year.
Justice Becroft noted she remained engaged to Talagi and they had been in a relationship for four years.
She had just discovered she was pregnant at the time she helped him evade arrest and had recently given birth to his child, the court heard.
Auckland Crown Solicitor Alysha McClintock said the reason for the reduced charge was that when Boon-Harris helped Talagi on the night of the shooting, Tuuholoaki was badly wounded but had not yet died.
McClintock said Boon-Harris helped Talagi evade police immediately after the shooting near Fort St and then arranged for an Airbnb that night.
Boon-Harris had recently discovered she was pregnant and was in town for what she later told a probation officer was meant to be a “last celebration”.
She spent 64 days on the run, while Talagi was arrested 105 days after he allegedly shot Tuuholoaki.
Police allege they fled the scene on Lime scooters, ditched them at a carpark then drove to an Airbnb.
Sione Tuuholoaki was gunned down in Queen St in central Auckland on August 3. The accused gunman and his accomplice spent weeks on the run. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Justice Becroft asked McClintock what assistance Boon-Harris provided to Talagi as they fled the scene.
“It’s really the encouragement,” McClintock said.
“Clearly, she thought it was as serious as it turned out to be.”
The Crown sought a starting point of 16 months, saying the case was unusual because of the length of time the pair spent on the run.
A statement from Tuuholoaki’s partner was read to the court by a victim adviser, describing the trauma and grief inflicted by his killing.
“Since Sione’s life has been taken from him, every day has been a suffocating hell,” she said.
“For the first six months I slept with a knife under my pillow, living in paranoid fear that I was next.”
She said she had lost employment and was now unable to make genuine connections with people, and had been seen by four psychiatrists and been prescribed five medications for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The 29-year-old woman said she had relapsed into alcohol use after more than two years of being sober.
The Crown argued Boon-Harris’ case was more serious than that of Natalie Bracken, who helped Eli Epiha evade arrest after he killed Constable Matthew Hunt in 2021.
Hours after the shooting of Tuuholoaki, there was a considered decision by Boon-Harris to arrange for an Airbnb to help him hide from the police, Justice Becroft said.
That helped start the chain of events leading to him spending 105 days on the run, the judge said.
Boon-Harris’ lawyer, Justin Harder, disagreed.
He argued Talagi would have fled the scene anyway.
Harder said Bracken was significantly older than Boon-Harris and made an active decision, after seeing Epiha shoot the constable, to grab her keys and drive him away from the scene.
In contrast, Boon-Harris did not drive Talagi away from the scene and her involvement was essentially limited to booking accommodation. After ditching the scooters she did not drive the vehicle from the carpark, he said.
“There are very strong hallmarks of naivety and misguided loyalty,” Harder said.
He sought a 25% discount for the guilty plea and a further 25% for previous good character, youth and remorse.
Boon-Harris had a strong grounding in tikanga and wanted to return to her work as a teacher at a kōhanga reo, Harder said. Her father, mother and sister were in the public gallery to support her.
Harder said a starting point of 10 months was appropriate and sought an end sentence of community detention rather than home detention to allow Boon-Harris to engage better with her young child and to return to work.
Community detention restricts offenders’ movements during a curfew period set by the court, but is less restrictive than home detention.
Justice Becroft suppressed details of the allegations against Talagi apart from the bare facts of the charge.
Reading the summary of facts admitted by Boon-Harris, the judge said Boon-Harris had remarked “f***ing idiot bro” and “bro get the f*** on the scooters now let’s go”.
It is not known if they stayed at the Airbnb she arranged for more than one night or if she took any further actions to support Talagi, Justice Becroft said.
Harder said she went to stay in the Far North before eventually contacting her parents to arrange for her surrender, more than two months after the shooting.
Justice Becroft said her assistance allowed Talagi to evade arrest on the night and thereby remain at large for more than 100 days.
The judge said her assistance to Talagi was considered and had an element of sophistication, extending beyond that offered by Bracken to Epiha.
He set a 16-month starting point, applying reductions of 25% for the early guilty plea.
Justice Becroft said she was 23 at the time of the offending, but he accepted a 5% discount was available for her youth.
He accepted she was of previous good character and had no previous convictions or brushes with the law, and also allowed a 5% discount for remorse.
Justice Becroft reduced the sentence to nine months’ imprisonment and took note of the fact she had recently given birth in converting the term to five months’ home detention.
But the judge said converting the sentence to community detention would be “a step too far”.
The judge said Tiari Boon-Harris' assistance to Dariush Talagi was considered and had an element of sophistication.
Witnesses to the shooting of Tuuholoaki said the shooter fled on a Lime scooter.
