KEY POINTS:
A young man who took part in an assault that killed a youth in Wanganui on Guy Fawkes night 2004 has had his manslaughter conviction replaced with assault and his jail term reduced by two years.
Rio Jade Hartley, then aged 19, was one of four youths who embarked on what prosecutors called a "rampage of violence" in Wanganui on November 5, 2004.
The group left two men injured and 16-year-old Jeremy Frew dead from a stab wound after several hours of roaming around the city looking for people to assault.
Rawiri Hatata, then aged 16, was convicted of Mr Frew's murder, after a jury in the High Court at Wanganui found him guilty of stabbing the victim through the heart while he sat in his car at Castlecliff Beach.
Hartley, along with Shae Brider, then 19, was found guilty of manslaughter while Jordan Aranui was acquitted of manslaughter.
The men were also convicted of a raft of other violence charges relating to assaults on three other men in two separate incidents earlier in the evening.
Hartley appealed his conviction, with defence lawyer John Rowan QC arguing that his client could not have been guilty of manslaughter as he could not have foreseen the stabbing was likely to occur as a result of the assault.
The facts showed Hartley had begun the assault on Mr Frew, punching him through the window of his car. He was then pushed aside by Hatata and Brider who continued the assault.
Hartley went to the beach to try to start a fight with someone else, was called back after the stabbing and the group drove away. He had not known Hatata had a knife.
In a decision released today the Court of Appeal quashed Hartley's manslaughter conviction and replaced it with one of common assault.
His appeals against other charges were dismissed.
The original sentence of 11 years' imprisonment with a minimum of seven years was quashed and replaced with a sentence of nine years' imprisonment, with a minimum period of five years.
The court said that because Hartley had no knowledge of the knife a conviction for manslaughter was not possible.
- NZPA
