Stabbed dead for $30 and some cannabis | New Zealand

Stabbed dead for $30 and some cannabis

"Was my son's life really worth $30 and some cannabis to smoke?"
Tracy Jacobs remembered her calm and loving son, Steven Michael Stone, 21, at the sentencing hearing for his murderer in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. Andre Londale Watene took the cannabis that Steven's flatmate handed over, along with $30. Then, in an act even his lawyer called senseless and pointless, he also took Mr Stone's life.
Watene stabbed him in the leg and then in the upper chest, straight into his heart, even though the robbery was not being resisted.

Mr Stone had seemed destined to represent New Zealand at lawn bowls. His mother collected his awards this year, three months after his death. "I never believed I would live to see my son buried."

She found out a week ago that she is pregnant, but is adamant it is not a baby to replace her lost son.

After the sentencing she said Watene's guilty pleas to charges of murder and aggravated robbery meant a trial would not be held.

She believed lies were told at a preliminary district court hearing; now the truth would never be known.

No jail term, let alone the 15-year minimum life sentence Watene had to serve, would be enough, she said.

Mr Stone's family at the High Court yesterday spoke of a decent young man who did not smoke or drink. He was unconnected with the drugs that Watene was seeking at the Upper Hutt flat on April 19.

His grandmother, Doris Jacobs, says her life will never be the same. She cannot understand why Watene killed when there was no threat.

Outside court Michael Jacobs struggled with news that not only was Watene on parole for another stabbing when he murdered his grandson, but he also had many violence and robbery convictions.

Watene was freed from jail on August 14 last year, after serving less than four years of a five-year term for wounding.

Justice Jill Mallon was told that Watene, 31, and others went to the flat planning a drug robbery.

Police charged four men with murder but withdrew it for three. Two admitted aggravated robbery and face sentencing in February. A third faces an aggravated robbery trial in September.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry