Domestic violence - the hard facts. Video / Phil Welch
Gabriel Tuporo is likely headed to prison for hitting Hohepa Waipouri with his car.
Tuporo acted out of resentment for Waipouri’s abuse of his sister, leading to the confrontation.
Judge Sanjay Patel sentenced Tuporo to two years and two months’ imprisonment, with an appeal pending.
For years, Gabriel Tuporo’s feelings of resentment and helplessness grew as he watched his sister suffer physical abuse at the hands of her long-term partner. Then on Christmas Eve last year, as he happened upon the other man while driving down a residential South Auckland road, an opportunity presented itself to confront him.
A dangerous game of cat-and-mouse ensued that ended with victim Hohepa Waipouri - on foot - being mowed down in the street by Tuporo behind the wheel of his red Suzuki Swift.
Now Tuporo - a 27-year-old father of two who has no previous criminal history - is likely headed to prison in the new year while Waipouri continues to suffer the after-effects of brain bleed and the weeks-long coma that resulted.
“Your mental health deteriorated as you ruminated about your perceived inability to keep your sister ... safe,” Manukau District Court Judge Sanjay Patel said earlier this month as Tuporo, bedraggled after having walked to court in the rain, appeared for sentencing.
Gabriel Tuporo in the dock at the Manukau District Court, where he was sentenced for a hit and run that left a pedestrian in a critical condition on Christmas Eve 2023. Photo / Michael Craig
The defendant wiped away tears as the judge outlined the circumstances of the serious assault.
“You plainly resented Mr Waipouri given your family had taken him in,” the judge continued. “You felt he had betrayed the love and support that had been given by your family to him.”
‘You wait. I’ll get you.’
According to the agreed summary of facts for the case, Tuporo had been driving along Hills Rd in Ōtara around 6.35pm that evening when he noticed Waipouri and pulled a U-turn to confront him “about family harm matters”.
“What do you think you are doing?” Waipouri said as Tuporo got out of the vehicle and tried to get into a fight, swearing and yelling at him.
Tuporo responded by threatening to stab the other man with a pocketknife that he was holding. After approaching Waipouri aggressively with the knife, the other man ran and sought safety at a nearby dairy. Tuporo, meanwhile, got back into his car and drove to the same dairy.
“Come out! Come out!” he yelled, adding about 20 seconds later before driving away: “You wait. I’ll get you.”
Waipouri eventually left the dairy and continued walking down the roadway as he had been doing before the confrontation. But as he did so, Tuporo spotted him again as he approached from behind.
Gabriel Tuporo mowed down his sister's partner with his Suzuki Swift during a confrontation on Hills Rd in Ōtara on Christmas Eve 2023. Photo / Google
“The defendant accelerated his vehicle, crossed over to the wrong side of the road and drove onto the footpath,” court documents state. “He struck the complainant from behind with the vehicle at speed. The impact propelled the complainant into the windshield and caused him to go over the vehicle and onto the road.”
Tuporo then sped away from the scene.
He was initially charged with failing to stop and ascertain injury and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which carries a maximum possible punishment of 14 years’ imprisonment. But prosecutors agreed to withdraw that charge earlier this year - substituting it with a charge of wounding with intent to injure, punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment.
‘Years of pain, deep-seated hatred’
The case against Tuporo had been strong from the outset, aided largely by a recorded police interview.
“He made full admissions to the offending, citing years of pain and deep-seated hatred towards the complainant due to the latter’s violence towards the defendant’s sister,” the agreed summary of facts states. “He said he panicked after the collision and drove home.”
Defence lawyer Hannah Kim argued during the recent hearing that her client should receive a non-custodial sentence in light of the background to the offending, his remorse, his health issues and anxiety and the effect imprisonment would have on Tuporo’s two young children - including a 2-year-old with autism for whom he is the primary caregiver.
His time in jail before he was released on bail “gave him some real insight into the consequences of his offending”, Kim said. Since then, she said, Tuporo “has done remarkably well” by enrolling in a non-violence programme. He has been assessed as having a low risk of re-offending.
Crown prosecutor Annelise Chan acknowledged that a modest sentence reduction might be available for the effect a prison sentence would have on Tuporo’s children, but she noted that the judge had already granted generous discounts during a sentence indication hearing in July. She opposed any additional discount for “provocation”, arguing that Tuporo’s actions did not meet the legal definition of having been provoked given that he was the one who initiated contact with the victim that night.
“We don’t dispute that his sister has been subject to family violence from the victim,” she acknowledged.
Waipouri was released from prison after having been sentenced for unrelated offending earlier this year and couldn’t be found for the hearing, the court was told.
“There has been a subsequent incident ... which has led to Mr Waipouri spending time in prison,” Judge Patel noted. “The outcome of the offending, I am not aware of.”
Court documents show he was charged with assault involving family violence, contravening a protection order and threatening to kill.
In a victim impact statement submitted to the court in July, Waipouri described spending two weeks in a coma at Auckland Hospital. He had no recollection of the incident itself, he said, adding that his pre-existing fear of hospitals has been exacerbated by waking up in one without initially knowing why.
Since then, he said, he’s noticed his physical deterioration, he’s more easily fatigued, he sometimes suffers memory loss, he has blurred vision at night and a loss of taste.
Prison-bound?
Judge Patel set a starting point of four and a half years’ imprisonment for Tuporo’s sentencing, taking into account the extensive injuries suffered by his victim and the fact he used his car as a weapon. There was also a degree of pre-mediation, the judge said.
“By the time of the interaction between you and Mr Waipouri ... you intended to cause him harm,” he explained.
The sentence was increased by three months to account for having fled the scene, but then 45% in discounts were applied for his guilty pleas, previous good character, remorse and his prospects for rehabilitation. That calculation, announced during Tuporo’s previous sentence indication hearing, put him at two years and four months’ imprisonment - four months past the cutoff point at which judges can consider swapping out a custodial sentence for home detention.
Gabriel Tuporo in the dock at the Manukau District Court, where he was sentenced for a hit and run that left a pedestrian in a critical condition on Christmas Eve 2023. Photo / Michael Craig
But Judge Patel said earlier this year that he would consider any other matters that came to light ahead of the December sentencing - including a psychological report that, at that point, hadn’t yet been completed.
“You accepted you were not acting rationally,” the judge recently said, noting that the now-finished psychological report said Tuporo was “experiencing intolerable pressure” and was “overwhelmed by anger” due to his inability to help his sister.
The judge allowed an additional 5% discount to account for his caregiver role for his children but agreed with the Crown that all other reductions announced earlier in the year had been sufficient and didn’t need to be lengthened.
The result was an end sentence of two years and two months’ imprisonment paired with one year’s disqualification from driving.
But before security took Tuporo away to begin serving his sentence, his lawyer indicated she would like to appeal the decision since it was so close to the home detention cutoff point. She asked for her client to remain on bail pending the appeal and the judge, noting the delay that would be inevitable due to the holiday season, granted the request.
The appeal, in the High Court at Auckland, will not be heard until next year.
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.
