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With a shared interest in business development and adventurous spirits that had brought them both to New Zealand, Jashandeep Singh and Manabir Singh had plenty in common.
But lingering resentment over a failed business partnership, when combined with alcohol, resulted in a violent confrontation outside a South Auckland home two years ago that resulted in one dead and another now in prison.
Convicted of manslaughter, Mananbir Singh appeared in the High Court at Auckland today for sentencing alongside three co-defendants who were found guilty at the same trial earlier this year of being accessories to the intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm.
Mananbir Singh, a 28-year-old truck driver, had been accused by prosecutors of murder for having hit unarmed Jashandeep Singh, 29, over the head with an unknown object – possibly a softball bat or a golf club – in the early hours of May 15, 2022, after a series of aggressive text messages between the two.
Jurors acquitted him of murder but they also rejected his self-defence claim, instead returning the manslaughter verdict.
“[The victim] threatened you. I find he referred at least once to shooting you,” Justice Mathew Downs noted today as he ordered a sentence of five years’ imprisonment for Mananbir Singh, explaining that those threats needed to be taken into account.
But instead of being frightened of Jashandeep Singh, the defendant was equally eager for a confrontation to take place, the judge surmised.
Jashandeep Singh went to the defendant’s Rosehill home around 2am with five others. Mananbir Singh, meanwhile, also collected friends as he headed home. Unlike the victim, he also collected weapons, the judge said.
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC said his client had an “otherwise unblemished character” prior to the incident, which had spun out of control. He predicted his client would never be before the court again.
Co-defendants (left to right) Navneet Singh, Sarwan Singh, Mananbir Singh and Mandeep Sharma appear in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing. Mananbir Singh was found guilty of the manslaughter of Jashandeep Singh in South Auckland in May 2022. The others were found guilty of accessory to causing serious bodily harm. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“He sought to avoid any confrontational violence that night,” Mansfield suggested. “He contacted the police and sought they attend his property to try to intervene.”
His client’s approach, he said, had been more akin to “let’s talk about it in the morning” than “come around to my property so we can fight it out”.
But the judge disagreed.
“You wanted to camouflage any violence that you might use when Jashandeep arrived by being on record as having called police,” Justice Downs said. “You did not sound the slightest frightened, which probably explains why the call-taker did not take you seriously.”
Had he actually been fearful, the judge said, he wouldn’t have driven to the confrontation or goaded the victim. Justice Downs noted that the defendant called the victim after calling police but later tried to delete the call.
The judge also rejected the defendant’s claim that he was carrying a “rubber or plastic item” rather than a more lethal weapon.
Mananbir Singh appears in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing. Jurors acquitted him of murder earlier this year but found him guilty of the manslaughter of Jashandeep Singh in South Auckland suburb Rosehill in May 2022. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“You held the weapon above your head,” the judge said. “You chased the car holding it in that manner. You were well in front of the other defendants. Jashandeep got out of the car. As he did, or very shortly thereafter, you struck him to the head with the weapon that you had.”
The victim never regained consciousness and was taken off life support in hospital weeks later.
Crown prosecutor Henry Benson-Pope noted that a number of weapons had been found by police after the fight, including a machete.
Co-defendants Navneet Singh and Sarwan Singh, Mananbir Singh’s brother, were found to have weapons. A final co-defendant, Mandeep Sharma, disconnected the CCTV unit and hid it inside a washing machine. The defendants decided together to lie to police, claiming that one of the victim’s friends had hit him. They also tried to flee New Zealand, the judge noted today.
The judge ordered sentences of four months’ home detention for Sarwan Singh and five months’ home detention for Navneet Singh, in line with what defence lawyers Steven Lack and Oliver Troon had sought.
Sharma, who was an overstayer at the time of the offending, was handed a sentence of 11 months’ imprisonment but with the expectation that he will be deported in the very near future. Defence lawyer Harry Redwood had sought a lesser sentence for his client but the judge directed all three to have a one-year starting point before considering deductions for previous good behaviour and any other factors.
As the sentencing began this morning, the father of the victim Jashandeep Singh stood silently before the judge as a detective read aloud his emotional written statement. He described his son as “the light that illuminated our darkest days”.
The family had put all their resources into helping him reach his full potential, and he in turn had a dream of buying a house in New Zealand that could bring all his family members together under one roof and create a “home of happiness”.
The father lamented that the tragedy could have been averted had they instead sought “a simple conversation with the help of some friends”. But instead, he said, his son’s laughter would never again fill his home.
“His life was precious and his absence is felt keenly by all who knew and loved him,” he said. “The scars left behind on our family’s heart will remain forever.”
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.
