Teenager ‘expected praise’ for home invasion
A woman told of a teenager coming home with alcohol and electronic items from a “home invasion” and behaving as though she should be proud of him.
The teenager, Taniela Kotoitoga Daven Tiako Waitokia, is now aged 18 and on trial for murder in the High Court at Christchurch.
The woman’s evidence on the third day of the trial before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury described how she and Waitokia’s mother persuaded him to hand himself in to the police the day after he killed 87-year-old Harold Richardson in his Upper Riccarton home.
Shanneke Kacey Nu’u said Waitokia had stayed at her home in Bishopdale and referred to her as his “auntie”.
She said he went out on a child’s mountainbike on the night of the killing, August 1, 2015, and she heard him return before 10pm.
When she saw him, he was pulling things out of a black bag, including a laptop. He asked if she wanted a GPS.
Miss Nu’u said she was taken aback. “He knew he was never to bring stolen property home. I assumed it was stolen.”
Waitokia, 16 at the time, told her he had done a home invasion. He said he had hit a guy over the head with a bottle as he slept, and he had left two men tied up. “He assured me they were fine,” she said.
She described Waitokia as really excited and smiling. “He thought I was going to be proud of him for doing this. He wasn’t behaving like he had done something wrong.”
She told the police in a statement: “He was like a dog with a stick and he was waiting for me to say, ‘Good boy’.”
She told the court: “I had spent so many hours talking to Taniela about sorting his life out. I wanted him to know this was the worst thing he had done so far.”
She initially wanted to protect him, and let him clean blood off his shoes, and put his clothing in to wash, but in the morning she decided he must do the right thing.
She contacted his mother who came to the house. They agreed that he must hand himself in, but he had “freaked out” and started crying. “The child in Taniela came out. He was begging us not go do that.”. He left the house, but returned soon after while she was on the phone to the police, she said. The police arrived quickly and took him away.
Waitokia denies the charge of murdering Richardson, who was found dead in his home. He admits the attack, but denies there was an intention to kill.
Update: Late on Wednesday afternoon, the Crown finished presentation of the prosecution case, and the defence indicated it would not call evidence.
The trial will hear closing addresses by counsel from 11.45am Thursday, and Justice Mander will sum up for the jury at 9am on Friday before they retire to consider their verdict.
Category: News
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