KEY POINTS:
A young couple convicted on a raft of charges after a police chase and an armed stand-off at Waihi in January have had their sentencing postponed until next month.
Yana Poata, 18, stood in the dock before Judge Peter Rollo in Tauranga District Court today but the appearance of James Samuels, 20, was excused.
Samuels is a paraplegic after being shot once in the lower chest when he refused to stop firing a rifle at police officers.
He had ignored several calls to put the gun down as he walked toward members of the armed offenders' squad who eventually stopped the pair at Waihi.
Poata was the driver of the stolen vehicle they had travelled in from Ngongataha near Rotorua.
Judge Rollo today remanded Poata in continued custody and Samuels, still on bail, to appear together for sentencing on September 26.
The couple face seven joint counts of using a firearm against police, one of burglary and one of unlawfully taking a vehicle.
Samuels initially also faced an attempted murder charge but at a depositions hearing in July that was reduced to an additional firearms offence. He entered guilty pleas all round, making a trial in the High Court at Rotorua unnecessary.
Poata pleaded guilty to all charges earlier in the piece. She has been serving jail time on unrelated matters.
- NZPA
