Nicholas Newton wrote he was 'about to die and the only thing I'm leaving behind is a path of destruction and negativity'. Photo / Rob Kidd
Nicholas Newton wrote he was 'about to die and the only thing I'm leaving behind is a path of destruction and negativity'. Photo / Rob Kidd
A man who accidentally shot himself in the chest at the end of a crime spree says he believes he survived for a reason.
Nicholas James Newton, 33, was jailed for three years and one month when he was sentenced at the Dunedin District Court last year but Justice Jonathan Eaton shaved four months from that following a High Court appeal.
In a letter to the court, Newton said he now planned to change his ways.
"I was disgusted in myself, about to die and the only thing I'm leaving behind is a path of destruction and negativity. I'd just come to the realisation that I've done nothing positive in my life to be remembered by," he wrote.
Justice Eaton said he was willing to accept Newton's resolve was genuine.
His co-defendants Dakia John Henare, 26, and Tyrone Kamal Henare, 28, were also locked up — for four years, four months and three years, two months respectively, when they were sentenced in July last year.
Tyrone Kamal Henare, left, and Dakia John Henare in the Dunedin District Court on charges of aggravated robbery, violence and driving crimes. Composite Photo / Rob Kidd, ODT
The spree began in Dunedin on the eve of the first nationwide Covid-19 lockdown on March 23, 2020, when Newton, Dakia Henare and another man were in a stolen Subaru in Kaikorai Valley Rd.
At a service station, Newton — wearing a hat, hood, sunglasses and gloves — entered wielding a sawn-off shotgun and pointed it at the sole attendant.
They made off with $200 and up to 20 pouches of tobacco.
On April 2, just days into the lockdown, Newton was dropped off by the Henare brothers outside the Dunedin Hospital with a shotgun wound to his chest.
He told medical staff it had "gone off" while he was removing it from the boot.
The Henares' getaway was foiled by their own recklessness when they ignored a red light and slammed into a bus.
They fled on foot and threw the sawn-off shotgun onto a roof but were soon tracked down by a police dog.
Newton had more than 70 previous convictions to his name, 10 for burglary and a multitude of dishonesty offences and violence, the court heard at sentencing.
Counsel Sarah Saunderson-Warner focused the appeal on the increase Judge David Robinson had applied during his sentencing calculations for the charge of possessing the firearm.
"There is an irresistible inference the same firearm Mr Newton shot himself with was used for the aggravated robbery some 10 days earlier. This gives insight as to the criminal purpose," Justice Eaton said.
The court, however, had to be careful not to double-punish the defendant, he said.
Justice Eaton ruled the sentence was manifestly excessive and noted a small adjustment to the penalty would have a large impact on Newton because he was on a second strike and was thus serving the entire jail term.
