Khanye Eruera Harimate Te Heuheu at the High Court in Christchurch this morning. Photo: Stuff / John Kirk-Anderson
A teenager who fatally stabbed a 16-year-old and seriously injured two other boys outside an Airbnb house party in Christchurch has been jailed for five-and-a-half years, in an emotional sentencing that drew angry outbursts in court.
Justice Rachel Dunningham warned she would adjourn the High Court hearing unless people settled down, calling for dignity "for Zion's sake".
Khanye Eruera Harimate Te Heuheu attacked Zion Purukamu and the other boys, aged 14 and 17, with a knife outside a Fendalton rental property in August 2021.
Zion's tearful parents, Adam Purukamu and Sharleen Kinley, brought his ashes to court and wore tops bearing his name and photo, along with his sisters and other whānau and friends.
Kinley told the court she found out Zion had been stabbed minutes after she woke in fright that night.
Zion Purukamu's parents Sharleen and Adam. Photo: Nathan McKinnon / RNZ
He was already dead by the time she arrived at the hospital.
"He was still warm, it looked like he was just sleeping. I wiped his last tear off his eye, telling him to 'please wake up son, I love you, I need you, please wake up', but he didn't wake up. He just started going cold."
Kinley directly addressed her son's killer in court, saying she relived the night he died every day.
"August 13, 2021 - That's the day you gave me a life sentence of heartbreak and pain. Every day I wake up and cry for my son, he was my baby and you took him from me," she said.
"You took a piece of me I can never get back. I will be hurting for the rest of my life. The day you killed my son, you killed me too."
Te Heuheu was initially charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter and two counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm last November.
Adam Purukamu told the court Zion was the baby of the family, and the pain of his son's loss was unbearable.
"He was the light of our life and I cry for my boy every day. He was my heart, he was everything to me, he was my little man.
"He had only been out to a party two times in his life, and the second time he never came home. We mourn for him every day."
Purukamu told the court his family would never be the same again, and he would never forgive Te Heuheu for his crime.
Zion's sister Amber Purukamu said her brother was her biggest protector and now her guardian angel.
"Nothing can justify what you've done," she told Te Heuheu.
"I could say you took the hearts and souls of us all, but that would be an understatement.
"Not only did you take the life of my brother, but you took all the life from his parents, his siblings, his friends. You took the love and light from our home and sent it away forever.
"Do you know what it's like to forget the sound of your own brother's voice? The happiness in his laugh can only be heard or seen in videos, his smile only seen in pictures - that's all we've got."
Zion's older sister Crystal Kinley-Purukamu said Te Heuheu could never imagine her family's pain.
"From putting my brother in his cot to having to walk him in his coffin to his last resting place will never sit right with me."
Zion's final night
Zion had been celebrating his girlfriend's 17th birthday at the house in Medbury Terrace on the night he died.
They did not know Te Heuheu, who was asked to leave the party by Zion and his friends when he kissed a girl they thought was too drunk.
A fight broke out, in which Te Heuheu stabbed Zion in the abdomen and back.
He also stabbed Zion's 14-year-old friend in the chest, piercing his lung, and another 17-year-old boy, lacerating his spleen. Both ended up in intensive care.
One of the boys told the High Court he thought he was going to die that night, and felt suicidal as a result of Zion's death.
Zion's family and supporters reacted in anger when Te Heuheu's lawyer Pip Hall KC told Justice Rachel Dunningham his client was provoked and acting in self-defence.
She warned she would adjourn the hearing if people in the public gallery did not calm down, with both family groups separated by a line of police officers.
"I want some dignity in this hearing for Zion's sake," she said.
Justice Dunningham sentenced Te Heuheu, who was 16 at the time of the killing but is now 18, to five years and six months in prison on the manslaughter charge and concurrent terms of two and three years for wounding the two other boys.
She said she could not be satisfied he had shown true remorse and acknowledged the victims' whānau and friends.
"No family should have to learn that a night of celebration for their son and brother turned into a night of tragedy and devastating loss," she said.
There were further angry scenes as Te Heuheu was led from court, with people yelling obscenities at him and his supporters.
"The justice system is shit," a man shouted, while another yelled "you're letting people f**king kill people".
