Sex seen as motive for Ashburton teen’s fatal attack

Seventeen-year-old Bronson Kelekolio hung his head as details of his knife and sex attack on a 22-year-old Ashburton solo mother were read in Christchurch’s High Court at his sentencing for murder.

Justice Graham Panckhurst imposed life imprisonment with a non-parole term of 14-and-a-half years on Kelekolio – who was only 15 at the time of the killing – and lifted the interim suppression order on his name.

Kelelolio, who was said to have been trusted “like a brother” by the murder victim Sina Nerisa Solomona and her twin sister and family, has gone to prison maintaining his innocence.

He blamed another local man for the killing and said he had arrived at the house and found the killer still present. He said the man had forced him to wrap two bloody knives in his own shirt. They were found by police hidden beneath a vehicle on his property.

Kelekolio’s DNA was found in bloody fingerprints on her thighs and genitals, and police photographed his bloody hands and clothing on the night. The investigation ruled out any involvement of the other man.

Miss Solomona was attacked after returning from work late at night, when Kelekolio knew she would be home alone. He had travelled in the same car, stayed drinking briefly at his own home, and then went out again. He at first claimed to have found her body.

She was found with 14 stab wounds and as many cutting wounds including a wound to her throat. The wounds had been inflicted by a sharp knife and a serrated knife from her kitchen. It was clear to investigators that her underclothing had been disturbed and there were bloody fingerprints on that area of her body.

Kelekolio pleaded guilty to the charges of murder and sexual violation by digital penetration, for the early morning attack on December 15, 2012.

Justice Panckhurst told Kelekolio: “The only motivation I can see for what you did is a sexual one.”

He said he hoped Kelekolio had listened to the victim impact statements in court.

He said he had to consider age and immaturity as part of the sentencing. He reduced the non-parole term because of these factors. Psychological reports said there was no mental health history or impairment, but he had repeatedly come to the notice of the police. He had significant learning difficulties, and was lacking in judgment, self-discipline, and the ability to think straight. There was evidence of a depressive state that set in while he was in a secure facility following his arrest.

Two family victim impact statements were read in court.

The mother of Sina Solomona, Anuella Solomona, said she wished her husband was still alive so that they could talk and cry together. She said Kelekolio had “always changed his story”.

She said she now got angry and cried because she felt so lost. “I can feel the anger in my kids.”

Miss Solomona’s twin sister, Loretta, said the offending had left a four-year-old girl without her  mother at her side. “I know Sina would have been the best auntie in the world to my child.”

She said in her statement: “It is hard to talk to a four-year-old girl who is asking where her mother is, and what her mother was like.”

Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae said there had been late guilty pleas. This meant there was little remorse that could be identified. A psychologist’s report for the court said he continued to deny the offending.

He said a sentence at the higher end of the range previously identified by the judge because the youth’s “lack of candour” meant the true motivations behind the offending were unknown.

Defence counsel James Rapley said the youth was entitled to have his age taken into account. He had struggled at school where his intellectual functioning and abilities had been low.

He had been suspended for disobedience and misconduct at school. “From a young age he was drinking alcohol to excess and smoking cannabis.”

Justice Panckhurst said there could be no reduction for remorse indicated by his guilty pleas, because of his present state of denial – “a product I suspect of the enormity of what you did”.

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