Tepuna Tupuna Mariri has been sentenced over the grisly slayings.
Tepuna Tupuna Mariri has been sentenced over the grisly slayings.
A New Zealand man will serve 13 years in jail for his "cold, continuous and callous" role in the manslaughter and torture of two people.
Tepuna Tupuna Mariri is one of eight people charged over the deaths of drug dealers Cory Breton and Iuliana Triscaru, whose bodies were found in a toolbox in a dam in Logan, Queensland, in 2016.
He was sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court on Thursday after earlier pleading not guilty to two counts of murder in favour of pleading guilty to two counts of manslaughter and two counts of torture.
Breton and Triscaru were found decomposing in a two-metre toolbox in a Logan dam on February 11, 2016, 18 days after they were last seen. It's believed they were killed over a drug dispute.
Justice David Boddice said Mariri had played an active role in the death of the pair, given his involvement in capturing Triscaru after she escaped, forcing her back into the box, and instructing others to shut the doors and windows to keep neighbours from hearing screams and cries.
"What you did can only be described as cold, continuous and callous," Justice Boddice said.
The box police found in a dam at Logan that contained the bodies of Corey Breton, 28, and Iuliana Triscaru, 31. Photo / News Corp
Mariri was further culpable for distracting neighbours when the box, carrying the victims, was placed onto the ute, inhibiting witnesses from calling emergency services, the judge found.
Further instructing others to clean the apartment was also considered in the sentencing.
"You must receive a sentence that reflects additional criminality," he said.
"In my view these crimes justifies a sentence as high as 13 years' imprisonment."
Cory Breton and Iuliana Triscaru were found dead in a toolbox in a Logan dam in February 2016. Photo / Supplied
The court heard Mariri, alongside Tuhirangi-Thomas Tahiata who was sentenced to life in prison in February this year, Ngatokoona Mareiti and five others lured the pair to a Kingston apartment in late January 2016.
The apartment was leased by Mariri alongside two others.
The group then bound and tortured Breton and Triscaru over a number of hours, before forcing them into the toolbox. The box was loaded on to the back of a ute driven to Scrubby Creek. Holes were drilled in the box and the pair were shot before the box was pushed into the water.
It's believed the pair were still alive when they entered the water. By the time their bodies were found they were so decomposed no final cause of death was able to be determined, but it was either drowning or strangulation.
Tepuna Tupuna Mariri was sentenced to 13 years' jail. Photo / Supplied
The court heard Mariri and others had sat on the top of the toolbox after Ms Triscaru attempted to escape. He also instructed the doors and windows be shut so neighbours would not hear the shouting and screaming coming from inside the apartment.
The prosecutor told the court Mariri had helped filled the toolbox with rubbish and other personal items and that when the others loaded the box on the back of a ute, he distracted neighbours.
Blood was pouring out of the box when it was loaded on the ute, and after his co-accused drove off, he and a number of others cleaned up the apartment.
The court heard heartbreaking victim impact statements read by the public prosecutor on behalf of Triscaru's mother and Breton's mother, wife, and sister.
"I miss her so much. Words can't describe how I feel because you did this to her, to all of us. Before everything unfolded you instructed to close the windows and doors … You let them beat her while you knew he was already being tortured," wrote Triscaru's mother in an address to Mariri.
"You knew she would be tortured too … She did not have a fighting chance.
"She managed to get out and she was caught and pulled back in. You sat on top of it so she couldn't get back out.
"Neighbours heard kicking and screaming while you took the box to the ute. You distracted them, ensuring them all was good, that nothing serious was going on.
"You cleaned up their blood … It must be a very cruel depraved mind … By doing what you did you opened my eyes to evil of the worst kind.
