Craig Kapitan is a Senior Multimedia Journalist for New Zealand's Herald, with extensive experience reporting on crime, navigating courtrooms, and supervising other crime and courts reporters.
I started my newspaper career in 2000 and have spent the majority of my time since then navigating courtrooms in the United States and New Zealand or supervising other crime and courts reporters. Along the way, I’ve covered the trials of a military base mass shooter, gang hitmen, rogue police officers and prison guards and more murder and death penalty cases than I can recall. Non-courtroom assignments have included rushing to a small Texas town where remnants of Nasa’s Columbia space shuttle rained down after its explosion, coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, a one-on-one interview with former US President George Bush Sr and a surreal ride in Chuck Norris' ute during which I quizzed the actor about his favourite Chuck Norris jokes. Some of my proudest moments in journalism include an investigative series that helped result in the criminal conviction of a judge and a 20,000-word, four-part story about a decorated police officer whose life was nearly destroyed by PTSD after serving as a sniper in Iraq. The later series resulted in a 2008 Livingston Award, which dubs itself the Pulitzer Prize for reporters under 35. I tied in the ‘excellence in national reporting’ category with The New York Times’ CIA reporter. I studied journalism at the University of Missouri and worked for newspapers in San Francisco and Texas before moving to Auckland in 2015. I spent six years in the TVNZ newsroom before starting at that Herald in 2021.
UFC star Israel Adesanya avoids drink-driving conviction
He pleaded guilty at his first appearance in September.
Prison ordered for meth syndicate henchman who tied drug rival to chair and stabbed him to death
The trial gave a rare first-hand insight into Auckland's lucrative underground meth labs.
Tied to a chair and stabbed to death: Ex meth boss to testify at murder trial
How "Ricky" Wang found himself tied to a chair.
Man jailed 15yrs for killing drug-ring member buried on Desert Rd
A man who served time for dumping victim's body is sentenced again - this time for murder.
Desert Rd homicide: Man pleads guilty to murder
Wang's body was found covered in concrete in a remote area three years after he vanished.
Ex-Dilworth teacher whose abuse spanned five decades jailed for eight years
"I behaved dreadfully and the bad feelings will haunt me forever," abuser tells court.
Name revealed: Former Dilworth music teacher accused of historic sexual abuse
Leonard Cave was hired at Dilworth in 1975 to run the Auckland school's music department.