R v Tupou - [2025] NZHC 2287

Sentencing - the offender had pleaded guilty to charges of murder and being in unlawful possession of a firearm - the offender and the victim came from families who had been engaged in a long-running feud with each other - this had resulted in numerous outbreaks of violence involving the use of firearms - the offender encountered the victim by chance when he arrived at a liquor store - he went to the victim's vehicle and shot him on two occasions whilst he was sitting in the driver's seat of the vehicle - there was no dispute that a sentence of life imprisonment was appropriate - starting point for minimum term of imprisonment of 12 and a half years to reflect the aggravating features of the offending - discount of one year to reflect guilty pleas and six months to reflect relative youth (23 years) and expressions of remorse - end sentence life imprisonment with a minimum term of 11 years.