A man who stole $20,000 worth of cigarettes from a Hamilton dairy fired two shots at a member of the public who confronted him as he jumped into his getaway car.<\/p>\n
The person wasn’t struck, but the impact of Rawiri Hemi Rowland Walkley’s actions that day continues to affect the victims.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old appeared in the Hamilton District Court before Judge Stephen Clark on Tuesday for sentencing on a charge of aggravated robbery after the incident on October 21, 2023.<\/p>\n
Walkley, with his son-in-law Solo Turner and a 14-year-old, pulled into Grove Place, a cul-de-sac near the Dinsdale Shopping Centre.<\/p>\n
The trio then walked to the Lucky Dairy wearing disguises. Walkley was armed with a Glock-style firearm, Turner with a baseball bat and the teen was carrying bags.<\/p>\n
Once inside, Walkley raised the gun and pointed it at the staff.<\/p>\n
He kept it trained on them as Turner jumped the counter and began to fill a bag he was holding with cigarettes.<\/p>\n
The younger person also joined in filling up his bag.<\/p>\n
The store’s fog cannon was activated and the three fled on foot towards their car on Grove Place.<\/p>\n
A member of the public who witnessed the incident chased them and confronted Walkley as he was getting in the car.<\/p>\n
He responded by firing two shots in his direction. No one was struck.<\/p>\n
Some $19,326.09 worth of cigarettes were stolen.<\/p>\n
Walkley initially denied being involved in the robbery but said he knew who was.<\/p>\n
In March, Turner was jailed for five years and five months for his part in this armed robbery and four others across Hamilton in five months.<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Lexie Glaser initially proposed an eight-year jail term as a starting point, but dropped that to seven years as the gun was deemed to be a BB gun.<\/p>\n
However, she submitted the perceived danger by the victims was still high.<\/p>\n
“Yes,” the judge agreed. “If you were on the receiving end of it, you wouldn’t know any difference.”<\/p>\n
She accepted that Walkley, like Turner, had engaged with the ManUp programme and said he should get a 10 percent discount for that work, along with another 5% for his upbringing.<\/p>\n
His counsel Nadine Baier said the offending wasn’t overly sophisticated but accepted there was a small amount of premeditation, with their adoption of disguises and weapons.<\/p>\n
There was a dairy targeted but the monetary value was not overly high, she said.<\/p>\n
She pushed for a 15% discount for his plea, 15% for his rehabilitative work, which had led to him relocating to another town, and 5% for remorse.<\/p>\n
He’d also offered to pay his share of the reparation.<\/p>\n
“He wants to pay these people back and I’m sure he intends to do that once he is released,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think he will go back on that promise. He is genuinely remorseful.”<\/p>\n
Walkley had told a pre-sentence report writer that he’d organised the robbery because he had run out of meth and he knew Turner had committed similar robberies before.<\/p>\n
He was now a member of Destiny Church and had joined the ManUp programme.<\/p>\n
The judge also took into consideration that his 11-year-old daughter was killed in a car crash in Kaikohe two months ago and another child was left seriously hurt.<\/p>\n
The fact he was armed with an imitation firearm was still serious and the victims had been left traumatised.<\/p>\n
The shop owner said he was unsure if Walkley was going to harm his wife that day and it had been hard since then to focus on running the business.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the man’s wife said she was still in shock from what happened and no longer liked to work late.<\/p>\n
Judge Clark said Hamilton “seems to have more than its fair share” of armed robberies.<\/p>\n
“We are sentencing people every week,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It might have been something that happened quickly, but there have been ongoing impacts.”<\/p>\n
After taking a six-and-a-half-year starting point and applying various discounts, he jailed Walkley for four years and two months.<\/p>\n
Judge Clark also ordered him to pay his share of the reparation, $6442.03.<\/p>\n