IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND GREYMOUTH REGISTRY

I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA MĀWHERA ROHE	
CRI-2019-009-011278
[2020] NZHC 1336	

THE QUEEN	

v	

AARON RICHARD POTTS	

Hearing:	12 June 2020	
Counsel:	P A Currie for the Crown
E C Bulger for the Defendant	
Judgment:	12 June 2020	

SENTENCING REMARKS OF NATION J

[1]	Aaron Potts, you pleaded guilty to a charge of murder of Barbara Quinn. You are now before the Court for sentence.

[2]	You and Ms Quinn were in a relationship for approximately eight months. Ms Quinn ended the relationship two to three weeks prior to the offending.

[3]	On 5 December 2019 at approximately 10 pm, you drove to Ms Quinn’s address in Greymouth after arguing with her over the phone. You entered her house, where you began arguing with her and swearing at her about ending your relationship. You were under the influence of alcohol and were unable to stand steady. You grabbed Ms Quinn by her arms and pinned her against the wall in the hallway. She yelled to her daughter for help, and her daughter pushed you off her.

R v POTTS [2020] NZHC 1336 [12 June 2020]

[4]	At 5.56 am the following morning, 6 December 2019, you completed seven internet searches about whether cutting wrists was the best way to commit suicide. At
8.17 am you purchased a dog toy and a snap knife from Greymouth Mitre 10. At 8.23 am you purchased a box of Lindt chocolates and some flowers from Greymouth New World.

[5]	At 8.34 am you communicated with an acquaintance on Facebook. The summary of facts reproduced various messages sent by you. They began with you saying “do you think I can be a monster? Just pure evil?”

[6]	You said the world needs evil – hurt people bro, but also that you were going to try a new game today. See how that would make you feel.

[7]	Records show that at 8.37 am your cell phone connected to the wifi at Ms Quinn’s house. You were seen sitting in your vehicle on Byron Street by a person you knew. This person parked his vehicle nearby and walked around to speak to you, but you and your vehicle were gone.

[8]	At 11.48 am you completed three Google searches on your cell phone of “how to choke someone”.

[9]	You were aware that Ms Quinn routinely returned home for a lunch break between 1 and 2 pm, and that she would be alone in the house at that time. Just before 1 pm, you parked your vehicle on Nelson Street, a block away from Ms Quinn’s but not within the travel path of her driving from work to home. You walked to a place where you would be able to see Ms Quinn return home, taking with you some alcohol, chocolates, flowers and your cell phone.

[10]	Ms Quinn came home around 1 pm and entered her house from the back door. You entered by the same door, which leads into the kitchen. Ms Quinn was surprised and angry to find you in her house and wanted you to leave.

[11]	You punched her once with a closed fist to the throat area. This caused her to fall to the ground, gasping for breath. You picked her up and threw her towards the

pantry cupboard, causing the handle to break. Ms Quinn fell to the kitchen floor. You placed your hands around her throat for an unknown period of time, squeezing hard. You realised Ms Quinn was no longer responding and checked for signs of life. The summary of facts states you began worrying that you had gone too far and that if she recovered you would be in significant trouble. You removed a kitchen knife from a drawer and stabbed Ms Quinn four times to the left chest area. The combination of the stab wounds and strangulation caused Ms Quinn to die.

[12]	You returned the knife to the kitchen drawer. You reversed Ms Quinn’s vehicle up towards the rear deck of the house and placed her into the rear compartment of the vehicle. You drove north out of town, stopping at a garage on the way to purchase a Stanley knife.

[13]	You parked the vehicle in a secluded area near a gold mine on Notown Road. During the next 12 hours you spent time in the vehicle with Ms Quinn’s body. You hid from vehicles when you heard them, believing they were police vehicles. You drank alcohol and, between 2.56 and 3.45 pm, you accessed 24 pornographic videos via the Pornhub site. You cut your own wrists and attempted to gas yourself.

[14]	Eventually Mr Potts you began walking away from the vehicle. Police located the vehicle at around 2.30 pm on 7 December 2019. Ms Quinn was found in the boot with a dog chain and leash around her neck. Police located you approximately 800 m away from the vehicle.

Law

[15]	An offender who is convicted of murder must be sentenced to life imprisonment unless to do so would be manifestly unjust.1 As Ms Currie pointed out, a life sentence is that. It means you will not be released ever unless the Parole Board thinks it is safe for you to be in the community. If you are released, you will remain under the supervision of the Department of Corrections and can be recalled to prison if the Parole Board decides you are again a risk.

1	Sentencing Act 2002, s 102.

[16]	When a life sentence is imposed, the Court must order the offender to serve a minimum period of imprisonment which may not be less than 10 years.2 Section 104 Sentencing Act 2002 provides a number of circumstances in which an offender must be sentenced to a minimum period of imprisonment of 17 years or more unless there is manifest injustice.

Pre-sentence report

[17]	In your meeting with the pre-sentence report writer, you claimed you did not premeditate the murder of Ms Quinn. You disputed that you had pushed her against a wall during an argument the night before, and said you were suicidal the next day rather than angry. You claimed the Facebook messages in the summary of facts were selectively cited and highly misleading. You explained your Google searches were for the purpose of taking your own life.

[18]	The report writer identified your offending-related factors as relationship issues and a propensity to resort to violence. There was also evidence that you had some reliance on alcohol, and the occasional use of methamphetamine and cannabis. You claimed the text messages I referred to earlier related to your efforts to obtain heroin.

[19]	The report said you are emotionally distraught as a result of Ms Quinn’s death. You take full responsibility. The report said you continue to feel self-loathing and are still coming to terms with what you did. The report said you had expressed deep regret at the pain you have caused Ms Quinn’s children and family. You have attempted suicide and were considered still to be a high risk of suicide. The report said you view suicide as the only fitting response to your having taken Ms Quinn’s life.

Victim impact statements

[20]	The devastating effect of Ms Quinn’s death is evident in the number of victim impact statements before the Court and indeed in the presence of all of those who are here today. Ms Quinn was a central part of a family who had a great deal of respect

2	Sentencing Act 2002, s 103.

and love for her. Her parents described the horror and heart-breaking pain of losing a daughter. Her three children have lost a loving mother who they could always rely on for support and understanding. They feel they have lost their direction in life knowing their mother will no longer be there alongside them. Their father must support his and Ms Quinn’s children while dealing with his own grief. Ms Quinn’s sisters have been robbed of a life-long friend. As others have acknowledged, the consequences of Barbara Quinn’s death, emotionally and otherwise, cannot be remedied by any sentence this Court can impose.

Sentence

[21]	There is no dispute that you should receive a sentence of life imprisonment. The only issue is the length of the minimum term to be imposed.

Aggravating features of the offending

[22]	The aggravating factors relating to this case are as follows:

(a)	 Violence and use of a weapon. You punched Ms Quinn in the neck, threw her across the kitchen and then strangled her with your hands before stabbing her four times with a knife. There will be a level of violence involved in all murders, but I consider the sustained period of violence and use of a clearly dangerous weapon in this case justifies it as an aggravating factor.

(b)	 Unlawful entry into a dwelling place. You entered Ms Quinn’s home without her permission, knowing that you were not welcome there. This factor encompasses vulnerability of the victim, who was within her own home and should have felt safe there.

(c)	 Premeditation. You said you did not premeditate or plan the murder, but rather you went to the house to attempt reconciliation with Ms Quinn and became so enraged by her rejection that you acted impulsively. Given that you took flowers and chocolates to the address, I accept you might have irrationally hoped that Ms Quinn would change her mind and welcome you. However, I also believe that you had contemplated being

violent to her if she did not. This was evidenced by your Google searches and the messages you sent to a friend. You may have thought you might try heroin but, before that, you had spoken of being a monster, pure evil, and hurting people. You purchased a knife and parked your car some distance away, after you had acted violently towards Ms Quinn the night before. All that indicated you were clearly planning, before you entered the house, to act violently towards her if she did not act as you wanted, and perhaps go so far as to murder her.

(d)	 Particular cruelty and callousness. In addition to the cruelty displayed in the assault against Ms Quinn which caused her death, you failed to render assistance to her, instead placing her in the boot of her own car and driving her body to a remote area. You accessed pornography videos while still in the car with her, and left her with a dog collar around her neck.

(e)	 Extent of loss, damage or harm. The loss of life and a loved one will be inherent in all instances of murder, but the extreme trauma and grief expressed in the victim impact statements warrants recognition.

Mitigating features of the offending

[23]	There are no mitigating features of your offending.

Factors personal to the defendant

[24]	You have a very limited criminal history, although you were subject to an Apprehended Violence Order in Australia in 2018.

[25]	You are entitled to credit for your guilty plea. This was entered at your second appearance, your first appearance in the High Court. Because on a charge of murder there is a mandatory life sentence, the ordinary discount of 25 per cent for a guilty plea cannot automatically reduce that sentence. The conventional discounting formula for finite sentences is not directly applicable to sentences for murder.3 A guilty plea can however affect the minimum term of imprisonment which will have to be served. Case

3	Malik v R [2015] NZCA 597 at [35]-[37].

law shows that reductions in minimum terms of imprisonment for guilty pleas and previous good character are generally no more than two years, depending on the timing of the plea and the strength of the prosecution case.4

[26]	Your counsel, Ms Bulger, submitted that recognition should also be given for your remorse, as expressed in your pre-sentence interview. You do still need to come to terms with the true nature of your offending. To the probation officer you disputed certain matters that you had accepted with your guilty plea on the summary of facts that was presented. To describe as you did in your letter to the Court that your “mistakes” were, as you put it, “less than desirable”, is the worst of understatements. What you did was seriously criminal and callous. You deliberately killed someone and caused irreparable loss to many.

[27]	Despite the callousness of your offending, despite the remarks you made in your letter which I have just referred to, I nevertheless believe that you are genuinely remorseful and that you do have some understanding of the intense anguish and pain that you have caused. Perhaps that is why you were almost unable to look at any of the victims as they read their victim impact statements. That remorse and some empathy is evident in the statements you made to the probation officer as well as your belief that suicide is the only way to make up for your actions.

[28]	Ms Bulger identified a final mitigating feature as being your cooperation with the police, including the making of some admissions. I take that into account as part of the credit for a guilty plea.

Section 104 Sentencing Act

[29]	The Crown submitted that s 104 is engaged in this case due to the high level of brutality, cruelty and callousness involved, including, in particular, your actions after Ms Quinn’s death. Ms Bulger responsibly accepted that s 104 applies, and I agree with the Crown’s assessment. Section 104(1)(e) is engaged. The Court must therefore

4	R v Beazley [2019] NZHC 672 at [44], citing Holl v R [2015] NZCA 67; Cornelius v R [2014] NZCA 123; Akash v R [2017] NZCA 122; and Simon France (ed) Adams on Criminal Law – Sentencing (online ed, Thomson Reuters) at [SA104.04].

impose a minimum term of at least 17 years unless satisfied it would be manifestly unjust to do so.

[30]	Manifest injustice must be clearly demonstrated by reference to the circumstances of the offending, the defendant’s personal circumstances, and the relevant sentencing purposes and principles.5 In this regard, I refer to a particular statement from the Court of Appeal in the case of Malik v R, (which I will not repeat now but which will be in the record of my sentencing remarks):6
A lesser minimum period would be warranted where the judge decides as a matter of overall impression that the case falls outside the legislative policy that certain murders are sufficiently serious to warrant at least that minimum period. The full range of sentencing criteria in ss 7 to 9 of the Sentencing Act may inform that overall impression, but because the legislative policy in s 104 must be respected, powerful mitigating factors may be needed to displace the 17 year presumption.

[31]	Both the Crown and defence submitted it would be manifestly unjust to impose a minimum term of 17 years in this case due to the credit to be afforded for your guilty plea. Ms Bulger further relied on the mitigating factor of remorse.

[32]	The Crown referred to minimum sentences imposed in other somewhat similar cases. These have been helpful to me in fixing the minimum term.7

Minimum period of imprisonment

[33]	The Crown submitted that, based on those authorities, the appropriate minimum period of imprisonment in this case would be in the vicinity of 13 to 15 years. Ms Bulger argued for a minimum period of between 12 to 13 years.

[34]	But for your guilty plea and remorse, your minimum term of imprisonment would have been no less than 17 years.

[35]	No sentence I impose can make up for the harm you have done. Nothing you do or say can undo what happened. But, you did do something tangible to lessen the

5	R v Williams [2005] 2 NZLR 506 (CA).
6	Malik v R, above n 3, at [32] (footnotes omitted).
7	R v McSweeney [2007] NZCA 147; R v L HC Auckland CRI-2004-044-8643, 13 June 2006; and
R v Lamont HC Greymouth CRI-2009-018-702, 16 December 2010.

ordeal for all those here today. You pleaded guilty on your first appearance in the High Court. You deserve credit for that. Your plea avoided the delay, substantial costs and use of Police and Court resources that would have inevitably been associated with a trial. Most importantly, your guilty plea avoided the ordeal that a trial would have had for all those who are in Court today as victims of your offending.

[36]	I also want to acknowledge the courage and responsibility which your counsel, Ms Bulger, demonstrated in allowing you to do that, without further delay, and without trying to find a way for you to avoid taking responsibility for what you obviously accepted you had done. You have demonstrated true remorse, spoken of it, but let me say that taking your own life will not make things better for all those whose victim impact reports I and you have read or heard. You said in your letter to the Court that what you did will stay with you for the rest of your life and in your actions and attitude you will show how truly sorry you are for what you did. All you can do to make up for what you have done is prove, in your life, that you can be kind and understanding to others. All that you can do is never again demonstrate the selfishness and cold- blooded callousness that was evident in this murder.

[37]	You will be sentenced to a minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years.

Conclusion

[38]	Mr Potts, please stand.

[39]	Following your guilty plea and conviction on the charge of murder, you are sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum period of imprisonment of 15 years.

[40]	I am also required to give you a first-strike warning. Given your conviction for murder, you are now subject to the three strikes law. I am going to give you a warning of the consequences of another serious violence conviction. You will also be given a written notice which contains a list of these ‘serious violent offences’.

1.	If you are convicted of any one or more serious violent offences other than murder committed after this warning and if a Judge imposes a sentence of

imprisonment then you will serve that sentence without parole or early release.

2.	If you are convicted of murder committed after this warning then you must be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole unless it would be manifestly unjust to do so. In that event the Judge must sentence you to a minimum term of imprisonment.

Solicitors:
Raymond Donnelly & Co., Christchurch E Bulgar, Barrister, Christchurch.