Levi Nepia was sentenced on Tuesday in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Nick Reed
Levi Nepia was sentenced on Tuesday in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Nick Reed
An Auckland woman with a long criminal history who participated in an armed home invasion that was both terrifying and humiliating - pouring milk over two of the victims' heads at one point - has been handed the maximum sentence due to the three-strikes law.
Justice Edwin Wylie ordered this morning that Levi Nepia, 32, serve 14 years in prison for the 2019 aggravated burglary, which she previously pleaded guilty to. However, he also ruled that it would be "manifestly unjust" for her to serve the term without the possibility of parole, as also outlined in the three-strikes law.
Instead, he set Nepia's minimum non-parole period at four years.
"There is still hope that you will be able to turn your life around," Justice Wylie told the mother of six as he announced her sentence at the High Court at Auckland. "It will not be easy for you, but I hope you will be able to put your past behind you and become a productive member of society."
Nepia thanked the judge as she was led out of the courtroom to begin serving her sentence.
She was one of three people who broke into an Onehunga home where five residents were sleeping in August 2019. Co-defendant Shaynee Manuel was sentenced one year ago to 15 months' imprisonment. A third participant, a man described in court documents as having committed most of the violence that morning, was never identified.
One of the victims was awakened by the male offender tapping him on the face with the knife. The man allegedly taunted two other victims by asking: "Who wants to die first?"
Authorities said the unknown man beat several of the victims with the knife handle, threatening to cut off their ears, as Nepia and Manuel filled a suitcase with thousands of dollars worth of household items including phones, a laptop, wallets and car keys. One of the victims required stitches.
At one point, the judge noted, Nepia saw a television and said: "I'll take this for my children." At another point, she retrieved milk from the victims' fridge and poured it over their heads. She and Manuel later pulled shirts over the victims' heads.
One of the victims' credit cards was used by Nepia at a dairy to buy an energy drink, chocolate milk and cigarettes.
Prior to Tuesday, she had been before a judge for sentencing 17 other times since 2007, Justice Wylie noted. Her first-strike offence in 2013 was for aggravated robbery and her second-strike offence in 2016 was for aggravated burglary.
"It is concerning you've continued to commit these types of offences despite receiving warnings at each stage," Justice Wylie said.
But the judge also noted her "dysfunctional and deprived upbringing". He and Crown prosecutor Lily Nunweek agreed with the defence that her upbringing has played a part in her current circumstances.
Nepia was raised in a broken home and last saw her parents when she was 10 years old, the judge noted. Her mother had a drug addiction, leaving Nepia to fend for herself and her younger siblings.
"You said you had to steal to feed them and yourself," the judge said.
Her father, meanwhile, was a high-ranking member of the King Cobras gang, introducing her to violence at an early age. As an adult, she was in a "toxic" relationship for over a decade and at the time of the burglary was using methamphetamine on a daily basis, according to a report prepared for the sentencing hearing.
Nepia wiped away tears as the judge reviewed her upbringing.
Defence lawyer Elizabeth Gresson said her client is ready to turn her life around so she can reconnect with her six children, who are between the ages of 1 and 14 and are currently staying with other members of Nepia's family. She pointed to a letter to the judge in which Nepia expressed remorse for the crime.
Unfortunately, Justice Wylie responded, Nepia said the same thing during her second-strike sentencing.
"She has learned from these previous offences and her back is against the wall," Gresson said. "Her hard lesson is being learned as we speak."
Had the three-strikes law not been at play, a sentence of six years and eight months' prison might have been appropriate, the judge indicated.
Amritpal Singh received two stitches in his face after being hit and cut by an intruder to his Onehunga home in August 2019. Photo / Dean Purcell
One of the five victims, Amritpal Singh, spoke to the Herald in 2019 about the 40-minute ordeal, followed a trip to the hospital to stitch up a cut near his eye. He did not know any of the burglars, who didn't wear masks, and said he was shocked at the sadistic nature of the offending.
"I don't know why they are doing this," he said of milk being poured over his flatmates' heads.
During the sentencing of Nepia's co-defendant last year, Justice Simon Moore noted that all of the victims have suffered financial and emotional harm. One of the five victims has moved overseas and two others have moved out of the house.
