NZ News
Jimmy Heremaia sentenced to life in prison for murder of Ariki Rigby
The man who murdered 18 year old Ariki Rigby in 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years.
She was brutally killed following an argument sparked by her wearing a gang member’s t-shirt, and her body was found in a burnt out car in Havelock North in September 2022.
Jimmy Heremaia, a 32-year-old orchard worker from Auckland pleaded guilty in February to the murder, was sentenced in the Napier High Court on Friday.
Also in court was Ropine Paul, 29, a labourer from Havelock North, who pleaded guilty to arson and was sentenced to 12 months home detention.
The public gallery was packed with Ariki’s family, more than a dozen police, and several family members of the defendants.
Jimmy Heremaia. Photo: RNZ
Ariki’s sister Anahera spoke in court, visibly emotional as she refused to look at her sister’s murdered, instead facing the judge as she talked about the crushing pain of losing Ariki.
“Ariki was not just my sister, but my best friend. Someone I could never live without.
“The way she was taken from me so violently and tragically turned my life into a nightmare. Despite this deep pain I refuse to let it break me,” Anahera said.
Anahera Rigby. Photo: RNZ
Justice McHeron acknowledged her statement, commending her on the quest to find Rigby and her killer.
“Just as you cared for her in life, you played an important part in the search for her, and identifying her,” he said.
Ariki’s father Peta Rigby faced Heremaia as he read his victim impact statement, and was supported by a member from his church.
Heremaia wouldn’t look up as Peta spoke to him, telling the man who murdered his daughter that he forgave him.
“I forgive you… have a good life brother. Amen,” Peta Rigby said.
Peta Rigby. Photo: RNZ
Ariki’s mother Maimaru Ngahuka also spoke, shaking and crying as she described the years of pain from losing her child.
“The death left me with pain. Aching pain, burning pain… It’s a constant reminder on a daily basis that my baby has gone. It does not go away and it has caused me to become lost to no end,” she sobbed.
Maimaru does not forgive Heremaia for killing Ariki.
“I hate you for what you have done. You had a choice, and you chose to murder my Ariki… you’ve taken her dreams, her future, her life.
“I ask that this sentence never be paroled, as the only justice for our Ariki,” she said.
Justice McHeron praised Ariki’s family’s strength in speaking in court before her killer.
“Together these words from her whanau are so powerful in facing grief and loss, but you are determined.
“These glimmers of the power of forgiveness will restore your strength and bring you ever slowly from darkness into light,” said McHeron.
Ariki Rigby Photo: Supplied / NZ Police
“He had every opportunity to provide assistance”
Crown lawyer Steve Manning asked the judge to impose a starting point for sentencing of 13.5 years of imprisonment for Heremaia, who struck her several times on the head with a weapon during an argument, and she was knocked out.
“His first thought was how do I get away with this? He had every opportunity to provide assistance… But he immediately started looking for somewhere to dispose of her body,” he said.
The Crown argued it was a particularly callous act to burn her body, and has led to further distress for her family.
“That has really impacted her whanau significantly. It was designed by him to obliterate evidence… Considerable thought went into it,” said Manning.
Heremaia’s lawyer Sumudu Thode told the court that Heremaia took full responsibility and wrote a statement.
“My deepest apology and sorry to the family of Ariki Rigby for my stupid and careless actions of mine that took the life of their beloved family member… there are no words to describe it… I’m truly sorry for all the pain and hurt I caused to Ariki’s family,” she quoted from Heremaia’s letter.
She said a minimum non-parole period of 13.5 years was appropriate.
While Paul’s lawyer Matt Phelps set out a case for the defendant not to be put in prison, and said he was a hardworking man and entered an early guilty plea.
“This offending does not require imprisonment sir,” he said.
The summary of facts, detailing the events leading to Ariki’s death, said that Heremaia – a patched Mongrel Mob member – and Rigby met three weeks before her death, forming a close connection and communicating regularly.
On 31 August, Ariki wore Heremaia’s Mongrel Mob t-shirt out in public.
“She… was confronted by another patched member of the Mongrel Mob who saw the act as a serious breach of the gang’s rules,” the summary said.
“Mr Heremaia was instructed by his seniors to retrieve the t-shirt from Ms Rigby, which he did later that day.”
A few days later Heremaia learned his patch had been taken from his family home. The Crown said that was because Ariki had worn the t-shirt.
Heremaia picked up Ariki and took her to “an isolated location” where they argued before she swung a weapon at him.
“He blocked her, before overpowering her and taking the weapon from her,” the summary said.
“He went on to use it to strike her several times including to the head.”
Ariki died from those injuries.
Heremaia then placed her body in the car and drove to Paul’s home, requesting his help to “get rid” of the body.
They drove to a remote car park by a river and used petrol to set fire to the car, with Ariki’s body inside.
At the time of Ariki’s funeral, a family spokesperson said she was a beautiful, passionate person, who lived life at “full throttle”.
Heremaia was arrested in September last year, and Paul was arrested the following month.
The arrests followed a plea from Ariki’s family for people to come forward with information.
Ariki’s death was initially treated as unexplained, before police launched a homicide investigation.
They reviewed their response after officers checking on the car failed to realise there was a body inside it for two days – initially thinking it was the body of an animal.
Source: RNZ
Latest News
Opportunities to mitigate multi-million-dollar RNZ budget blowout likely missed – experts
Multiple opportunities to identify and mitigate a multi-million-dollar budget blowout at RNZ appear have been missed, according to the former executive director at Audit New Zealand.
The public broadcaster on Monday revealed a near $12 million shock financial loss after a litany of financial blunders, which will now lead to sweeping job cuts.
The $11.8m loss is more than 25 times the $470,000 RNZ had expected to lose over the year to June.
CEO Paul Thompson took responsibility for the result, and said internal reports gave an inaccurate picture of the finances, meaning the scale of the loss only became clear in October.
RNZ’s former chief financial officer Hilary Parker resigned unexpectedly in early October.
The board said it would commission an independent review into what went wrong.
Independent contractor Stephen Walker, who left the Audit Office earlier this year, said the size of the loss was surprising, as was the length of time it took to identify it – months after the financial year ended.
Supplied / OAG
“Probably more of a concern is that they had seemingly been unaware that they were running up a significant deficit until they were in the preparation stage of their annual report in October.”
Walker said public entities typically produced monthly financial reports.
An interim audit also took place before the end of the financial year, he said, but if the organisation hadn’t identified significant losses at that stage, the auditor could also be in the dark.
“It seems that there’s a real weakness in forecasting and budgeting that’s occurred here and that the monthly accounts, when they’re produced, either haven’t identified these significant variances against budget or the magnitude of them really hasn’t come to light until right towards the end of the financial year,” Walker said.
“And really at that point, there’s no opportunity for the chief executive, the leadership team to take, and the board to take, any corrective action because the year has effectively been completed.”
Walker said the “significant miss” was difficult to account for given it was more than 10 percent of RNZ’s total funding.
He said based on RNZ’s annual report, financial complexity didn’t appear to be a factor.
“This $11.8m loss isn’t made up of one particular item … it seems to have been contributed to by a number of separate expense lines running over budget. So I don’t think it’s necessarily to do with complexity.”
Among the errors, RNZ wrongly counted $2m from land sales as income in its budget. Staff costs also came in $3.2m over budget, including $1.4m in redundancy payments.
Professor at Auckland University’s business school Norman Wong said based on media reports the issues identified were “significant and troubling”.
Supplied / University of Auckland
“But recognising the sale of land as income in their budget is a basic error that one would have expected to have been caught and corrected well before it got to this point.”
With funding reductions at RNZ over the past two years, Walker expected greater scrutiny of financial results.
“Virtually every public entity has had their annual budget reduced. And so you would expect … the leadership team on a monthly basis and board – I’m not sure how frequently the board will consider the information – but you would expect them to be interrogating the results on a regular basis throughout the year,” he said.
Walker said initiating an independent review was the correct course of action and that he’d want to understand what information the leadership team and the board were regularly receiving.
He said he’d “love to say” surprising financial results were rare, but conceded they occured on a semi-frequent basis during his time leading the Audit Office.
“The benefit of independent scrutiny by the Audit Office – and the auditors providing that support to the Auditor General – [is] that the reporting is fairly presented at the end of the year, whether it’s good, bad or ugly.”
rnz
Police say person who fired gun at officers still at large
New Zealand sides named for RLWC finals
Parliamentary Service working on extra chairs and offices for increased number of MPs
-
Latest News2 months ago‘Chilling’: Business groups speak out against National’s supermarket break-up plan
-
NZ News2 months agoTom Phillips report: The missed opportunities to find the children
-
Latest News2 months agoCars bearing Chinese police markings stir unease in Auckland
-
Politics2 months agoNational vows to try to split Pak’nSave and New World
-
Fiji News2 months agoPlans to have new Constitution by Dec 24th 2026
-
NZ News2 months agoCop who stole $68,000 can now be named as champion Muay Thai fighter Haimona Tamati-Te Paki
-
Politics2 months agoMBIE confirms botched biometric projects costs blown out to $50.7 million
-
Latest News2 months agoFive Karangahape Road venues lose their liquor licences after police intervention