Co-defendants Ita Faataape (left), and Corrdon Femitiai Vailoa Esera appear at trial in the High Court at Auckland. Jurors acquitted Faataape but found Esera guilty of murder. Photo / Jason Oxenham
A gun enthusiast who retrieved his military-style AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from home after his pride was hurt in a South Auckland melee - aiming it at a moving car and killing the teen driver - has been sentenced to prison.
Corrdon Femitiai Vailoa Esera, 33, returned to the High Court at Auckland today, four months after a jury found him guilty of murdering 19-year-old Misiona Talafu Petelo.
Justice Lane Harvey ordered him to serve a life sentence with a minimum term of imprisonment of 11 years.
The pain Esera caused to the victim’s family, who were too distraught to attend today’s hearing, will be “embedded in the family indefinitely”, Justice Harvey noted.
“They may never get over their loss,” he said.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Esera returned to the motel where the melee had occurred an hour later and lay in wait with friend Ita Faataape in his vehicle until he saw the Suzuki Swift leave with the victim inside.
He then ordered the friend/co-defendant who was driving his ute for him to follow the Swift.
He admitted to leaning out the passenger-side window and opening fire in the direction of the compact car as it drove down Massey Rd in Māngere, with one of the four bullets that hit the vehicle going into the back of the teenager’s head. But it was never his intention to kill anyone, his lawyers argued.
Jurors acquitted Faataape of murder but rejected Esera’s argument.
Petelo, who was also known by the first names Siose and Siaosi, had immigrated to New Zealand from Samoa in 2019. He had been raised in Samoa by his mother but that evening he was drinking with his father, who lived in Papatoetoe.
Esera, meanwhile, had moved to New Zealand from Samoa with his family when he was 7. That evening, the furniture warehouse employee was finishing up a 12-hour workday and was planning to cut loose with some co-workers at the Oakwood Manor motel when the men’s paths would cross.
Upon arriving at the motel, Esera encountered a tense situation involving the teen’s stepmother, who had been already visiting the same unit where Esera intended to socialise, authorities alleged. The woman, who had been drinking, became agitated and aggressive to people in a neighbouring unit and at some point turned her wrath towards Esera, possibly calling him a “pussy”, prosecutors had said.
The woman then called her husband to the motel, and Talafu Petelo also arrived. A fight broke out at the neighbour’s unit and police were called. While Esera was not involved in the fight, at some point one of the participants shouted, “Get a knife. I want to kill,” while motioning in the defendant’s direction, prosecutors said.
The combination of the woman’s insult and the threat of a knife enraged Esera enough that he decided to return to the site an hour later with the gun, authorities said.
Crown prosecutor ‘Aminiasi Kefu described Esera during the trial as a gun enthusiast who knew the “power and danger” of the rifle, with a scope attached, that he chose to fire at the car. He attended a gun club, took part in shooting competitions and had extensive safety training about guns and gun storage, Kefu said.
Defence lawyers Graeme Newell and David Dickinson had urged jurors during the trial to find their client guilty of manslaughter instead of murder.
“It’s unusual to see someone appearing for sentencing with such good insight,” Dickinson told the judge today, noting that his client had no prior criminal record and had been on electronically monitored bail for a year-and-a-half with steady employment before the murder trial began and had no breaches.
“He was completely compliant,” Dickinson added, explaining that even then his client realised “that full acquittals were an unlikely result”.
The Crown suggested today that the judge should take into account as aggravating features of the offending the pre-meditation of the shooting, the vulnerability of the victim who was unarmed and driving at a normal speed, and the fact the defendant fled the scene and disposed of evidence - including his phone and parts of the gun. The loss and pain to the victim’s family should also be taken into consideration, he said
Kefu acknowledged that some aspects of Esera’s upbringing were not ideal, but that didn’t appear to play a part in his offending, he argued.
“He was in a stable environment with his partner and his children,” he said. “Any causal link of the background to the offending is minimal.”
Justice Harvey acknowledged two victim impact statements which were submitted to him but not read aloud in court. He also acknowledged Esera’s family and supporters present in the courtroom, noting that Esera’s actions that day have hurt both families.
The judge agreed that there was pre-meditation involved in the shooting but noted the defendant’s suggestion that his drinking contributed to him pulling the trigger in the moment when he initially only intended to “teach a lesson” by scaring the men. He grew up in a household with alcohol abuse and was drinking up to 24 cans of alcohol a night at the time of the shooting, the judge was told.
The judge also noted the defendant’s conversion to Islam and his feeling that he has sinned against his religion. When asked by a pre-sentence report writer how he felt about the incident, the judge noted, “You said you feel like crying and the deceased was the same age as your younger brother.”
He allowed modest discounts for the defendant’s upbringing and his “significant” efforts at rehabilitation so far.
“You should continue these rehabilitative efforts in prison,” he advised.
Murder carries a mandatory life sentence with a minimum period of imprisonment of at least 10 years unless such conditions are found by a judge to be manifestly unjust. The lawyers and the judge were all in agreement that it wouldn’t be.
Esera gave a small nod as the 11-year minimum term of imprisonment was announced. He turned and smiled to his family as he was led out of the courtroom.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.