Dylan Hemana was sentenced to eight years imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of four years for organising the kidnapping and torture of a man assumed to have stolen methamphetamine from the Head Hunters. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
A man who ordered a violent kidnapping that involved torture with hand tools after $200,000 worth of methamphetamine went missing in Nelson has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Dylan Hemana, 33, appeared in the High Court in Nelson on Friday for sentencing on charges of kidnapping, wounding with intent, possessing meth for supply and corruptly offering a bribe.
Justice Karen Grau said Hemana was associated with the Head Hunters gang in Auckland and began travelling to Nelson in August 2022 where he had been supplying methamphetamine to a dealer.
In early September 2022, police searched the dealer's home in Nelson, as part of an investigation into meth dealing code-named Operation Christmas.
Officers found more than $30,000 in cash in the house, 39 grams of meth and items of gang clothing.
Police did not find all the meth as Hemana and the dealer had left about $200,000 worth of the drug with a man referred to as Mr H to look after. It was initially stored in the boot of a Holden Commodore, before Mr H was told to bury it.
In doing so, Mr H discovered the bag contained meth and he later, with another associate, took it to a motel in Tāhunanui.
The associate then fled Nelson with most of the meth and police later recoverd another 71g in two containers at the motel.
In a bid to recover the missing drugs, Hemana and his associate Repana Tangira, 20, flew to Nelson in mid-September under false names. They caught a taxi to Mr H's house in Washington Valley and ransacked it, detaining him along with his mother and teenage brother, preventing them from leaving.
"You told Mr H that you were there to get what was yours and if they didn't return it then you would do what needed to be done to his family, Mr H was told he had 24 hours," Justice Grau said.
Three other people joined Hemana and Tangira over the next two days.
Zane Clifford Welsh, 38, Hopa William Wilson, 31, Tessa Rose Alford, 34, and Tangira also faced charges of kidnapping and received sentences of community detention and home detention the High Court in Nelson last month.
Two days after the kidnapping began, Hemana told Mr H he would be taken up north, and he was ordered to drive Tangira and Alford to Blenheim. The trio went on to Rarangi Beach where they all fell asleep, before being woken by a police officer on patrol in the area. The group then returned to Nelson via Picton.
Meanwhile Hemana remained at the Washington Road address, questioning Mr H's mother about the missing methamphetamine. He handed her a toy container labelled "unicorn poo" that contained a pink crystal substance and demanded to know where the rest of it was.
Hemana became angry over her continued denial and told her he would make her watch him hurt her children and rape her daughter. Police later found the unicorn poo container at the address, containing 19g of methamphetamine.
When Mr H returned to the house, he challenged Hemana about where he had found he container. That caused Hemana to became angry and he used a pair of pliers to squeeze both of Mr H's big toes while continuing to question him.
He then used a hammer to hit Mr H on his head and legs, fracturing his jaw and tibia and told him he had until midnight to get everything back or he was going to die.
In the early hours of the next morning, after Hemana allowed Mr H's brother to have his phone back, the teenager hid in a wardrobe and called police.
When police arrived, Hemana told Mr H's mother and brother to go into one of the bedrooms and remain quiet. Mr H was lying on the couch with visible injuries to his face and leg and when officers asked what had happened, Hemana told them he had fallen over.
Police began searching the house and found the victims and while they were distracted Hemana left the address.
He returned a short time later and hid in the backseat of a car, pretending to be intoxicated. He was found by police and arrested.
Hemana told the police officer he was a gang prospect, and he would pay him $10,000 if he let him go.
Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber said Hemana's offending was a "calculated torturing of another person" with the aim of getting the victim to divulge the whereabouts of the missing drugs.
"A very intentional piece of violence inflicted in a very callous way for a very specific purpose."
Webber said Hemana had shown no compelling indications of remorse, other than for the situation he ended up in.
Crown Prosecutor Jackson Webber said Dylan Hemana's offending was "a very intentional piece of violence inflicted in a very callous way for a very specific purpose". Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Mr H required surgery for both his injuries and spent a week in Nelson Hospital where he had a metal plate and wiring put in his jaw and a metal rod in his leg.
Defence counsel Jack Seton said Hemana's upbringing had been compared to that depicted in the film Once were Warriors, with his father akin to Jake the Muss. His childhood was marked with abuse and the lack of a stable environment, being moving around frequently to avoid child protection authorities.
"Normalised family violence, witnessing the attempted suicide by his mother at age nine, public beatings by his father at 11, the trauma of this leads into adulthood and the limited ability to self-regulate violence."
He said this led to Hemana dropping out of school in year nine, abusing alcohol and drugs and joining a gang.
Since being in custody he had completed several programmes, had ceased contact with the gang and was supported by family members.
Justice Grau said Hemana's offending was "extremely disturbing" and involved the sustained detention of three people in order to recover a commercial quantity of methamphetamine.
It was premeditated, caused the victim serious injuries, involved the use of weapons, an extreme level of violence, it took place in the victim's own home and involved gang retribution.
"It was in the nature of torture designed to extract information through the application of pain, including forcing the victim to walk on a broken leg and to wash his blood off the tools that had been used to inflict the injuries on him.
"I accept it may be the case that you had orders from further up the gang hierachy, but you were the person on the ground in Nelson who was in charge, directing the other four people in the group who were assisting you and you were the only person who inflicted this serious violence."
She said his upbringing had been "sub-optimal" as it featured loss, trauma and violence but she was not satisfied Hemana had shown genuine remorse.
From a starting point of 13 years in jail, Justice Grau allowed a 40 percent discount (five years and two months) for an early guilty plea and personal factors, with a two month uplift for Hemana's criminal history, resulting in an end sentence of eight years imprisonment.
Justice Grau said it was necessary to impose a non-parole period of four years to ensure deterrence and and she remitted $6730 in outstanding fines.