Drunk driver Tere Moekore has been jailed for the Auckland hit-and-run that killed Papatoetoe High School student Kaea Matau

On the evening of March 8 this year, Moekore spent the evening drinking with her grandmother and a neighbor. She later admitted to drinking 12 packs of pre-mixed vodka drinks without eating before or after.

Just before 10pm, Matau and his best friend left their friend’s house on foot and fled across the two-lane Great South Road in Papatoetoe using a marked pedestrian crossing. Moekore, who was alone in her vehicle despite her learner’s permit requiring an observer, was driving at approximately 95 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.

“As the deceased was crossing the road, the defendant’s vehicle struck the deceased, causing his body to fly into the air,” the agreed statement of facts said. “The deceased was thrown approximately 30 meters across the northbound lane and came to rest in the cycle lane on the far side of the road.

“The deceased died on the spot from the extensive injuries he received.”

Moekore did not stop or even slow down, court documents say.

“The accused was driving along Great South Road when another road user spotted her speeding and chasing another car. The road user also noticed that the front bumper of the defendant’s car was hanging off, the hood was dented and smoke was coming from the car.”

It didn’t take long for police to track down Moekore. A member of the public called police after her front bumper, with the license plate attached, fell off her car as she continued driving.

Police arrived at her home a few hours later, around 1:30 a.m., and noticed she was “very intoxicated and agitated.” A breath test showed her blood alcohol level was 1,013 micrograms of alcohol per liter of breath. The limit for drivers over 20 years of age on a learner’s permit is 250 micrograms.

Police gave Moekore’s explanation: “She recalled seeing a man crossing the road on Great South Road. She didn’t see where the man came from, but she remembered that he wasn’t looking as he crossed the road. She didn’t realize she had hit a person. She arrived home and realized that her car was damaged. However, she was adamant that she was not in an accident.”

Even after she pleaded guilty in August to drunk driving causing death and failure to stop to ascertain bodily injury – crimes that carry maximum penalties of 10 and five years in prison, respectively – Moekore did not seem to realize the seriousness of what she did, the judge noted. . He cited a pre-sentence report prepared by a probation officer which alleged she was defiant and dismissive of her speed and significant alcohol consumption.

“You described it as just ‘nonsense’ that you thought you were fine,” Judge Jonathan Moses said, adding that Moekore also “believed it was perfectly fine to drive unaccompanied because you did this has been going on for years.”

If Moekore had been driving at the speed limit, both teenagers would have made it safely to the center lane, investigators theorized.

Matau played seven instruments, including viola, piano and double bass. His music teachers and orchestra played selected works by Bach, Beethoven and Mozart on his tangi.

The Year 10 Papatoetoe High School student was 1.93 meters (six feet four inches) tall and weighed 110 kilograms, a “gentle giant” and a “big softie” whose family believes he could one day play prop for the All Blacks – or just as easily was a brilliant professor.

As a child, he was immensely proud of his Maori and Samoan heritage, an accomplished and keen student of his father’s traditional carving art.

He was a social butterfly with an unforgettably wide smile who lived to spend weekends and school holidays with his many cousins.

“Kaea could sing like a tui and started all our waiata,” his mother recalled through tears. “He dreamed of playing in different orchestras around the world. Kaeya’s potential was limitless.”

The teenager’s aunts, cousins, sister, best friend and parents spent about two hours during the sentencing hearing taking turns addressing Moekora, an unusually long period devoted to victim impact statements. Behind the platform, where they each stood in turn, stood a large framed photograph of Matau.

“He has an innocent soul and a beautiful heart,” one cousin recalled after the courtroom filled with mournful waiata.

The aunt recalled his brash moments, such as when he would hurriedly pull out the vacuum cleaner at the end of the day before his mother got home and rush to do chores that he ignored. According to others, he was always the tallest and chubby kid in his class, but in the last year of his life he enjoyed spending time in the gym, stretching and posing for his family when he came home.

In a dozen courtroom eulogies, family members recalled the joy and love he brought them. But they also shared their anger.

“The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, but you are not the Lord,” said one of his aunts. “You didn’t stop, didn’t take his hand, didn’t even console him. Why? Why didn’t you fulfill your duty of care?

“You interrupted his line… His story ends. I hope you understand the devastation you have caused. Our world will never be the same because you did this.”

His sister added through sobs: “I can’t help but think of my brother, scared and helpless in his last moments… You have to pay the consequences so that no other whānau suffer.”

Family members repeatedly thanked his best friend for being there to comfort him even when the driver wasn’t there.

“I still believe you have no remorse. Look at you! – his father shouted as the accused looked straight ahead without making eye contact. “I miss you, my sweet, loving, gentle giant. Your life was worth something, my son.

His mother sobbed as she stood at the pulpit, then sat down and sobbed some more. The long-time New Zealand Post manager said she could no longer work due to the loss.

“Simply put, this man ruined my life,” she said. “I’m so broken. My son died in such a terrible way.

“I will never be the same. I’m not okay… Look how all my whānau hurt. I’m just a shell of the person I once was.”

After victim statements were completed, Crown prosecutor Bernadette Wylie asked the judge to consider a starting point of four and a half years in prison, while the defense sought a starting point of approximately three and a half years.

“There is a complete lack of remorse,” Wylie said, also noting that this was not Moekore’s first offense – she pleaded guilty in 2020 to driving while three times the alcohol limit.

Defense attorney Kyle McNeil asked to speak directly to the Matau family on behalf of his client. He acknowledged that during the hearing she seemed to “withdrawn” and may not have been remorseful, but that was because her failure to express her views tended to leave a “false impression”, he said.

The judge chimed in: “I definitely noticed there was no remorse in her behavior.”

“That’s definitely how she presents herself,” McNiel admitted. “But that’s not true. She hears pain, anger, sadness, devastation.

“She’s not a monster, but she did a monstrous thing… She in no way blames the boys for what happened.”

Judge Moses refused to grant Moekora a remorse discount.

He settled on a final sentence of three years and two months in prison, preferring the longer original sentence proposed by the Crown but allowing the standard 25% discount for her early guilty plea and 5% for the rehabilitative steps she took after her arrest.

“I hope… that this has made you aware of the enormity of what you have done and the carnage you have caused in this whānau,” he said, urging her after her release from prison to “spread this information to everyone you can “that drinking and driving only causes chaos and sadness.”

Before sending Moekore to serve his sentence, the judge addressed the family and thanked them for making him feel like he knew Matau.

He imagined what the teenager would say to his family if he could: “Please move on. Please remember me, but do your best to prevent this from ruining your life in the future.

“I’m sure that’s what he wanted,” the judge said.

Craig Captain is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand since 2002.

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