Colin Hoani. Photo: RNZ
A man who snapped and stabbed his elderly neighbour to death in a fit of rage says he has learned the art of patience.
Colin Hoani stabbed Valmai McFie 17 times with a boning knife after the 67-year-old allegedly made a racist remark towards him. He then turned himself into police in July 2013.
"Using your own words, you totally lost it - anger took over, and... this was the angriest you'd ever felt," Judge Graham Panckhurst said before sentencing him to life in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years later the same year.
However, this week that sentence was given an end date as the New Zealand Parole Board agreed to release Hoani in August.
"I've learnt patience, which was my worst enemy for carrying on in life," Hoani told the board. "Everything is not done in a flash."
Hoani will be released into the care of a rehabilitation centre which will help him reintegrate into the community.
McFie's niece, Louise Wegner-Parker, told NZME that she found it hard to believe that Hoani had learnt patience behind bars.
"He was a very, very angry man," she said. "How can he be so different to how he was before he went to jail?"
Wegner-Parker said overall she wasn't surprised that Hoani had been released because "10 years is just what you get for murder in New Zealand".
"It's still impossible to understand that a 10-year sentence is appropriate for a murder that our family believes was preconceived."
Following McFie's death, the Christchurch City Council conducted an independent review of its social housing and made changes to the way risks to its tenants and staff were identified.
In 2013 at Hoani's sentencing, the court was told that there had been a "history of disharmony" between McFie and Hoani.
McFie made a complaint to the council and steps were taken to try and resolve the differences, including unsuccessful mediation.
On Saturday, July 20 at about 6.20pm, Hoani was sitting outside his flat drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette.
He claims that when McFie returned home, she fired a racial comment at him, which he later said was the last straw.
He then took up a boning knife and stabbed her repeatedly in the upper torso where she collapsed and died on the spot.
Hoani's defence counsel initially asked for him to be assessed as a mentally impaired person, but a report found he had no mental health problems that in any way mitigated or explained the killing.
Colin Albert Hoani Photo: RNZ
At a brief hearing before the parole board earlier this week, Hoani was asked about his health. He said he had "packed on a few pounds" but was otherwise hale.
"I'm 70 now, and I'll be past my used-by date in five years time," he said.
"That's my family history. Everyone in my family has passed away before they were 70."
Following his first hearing after becoming eligible for early release a year ago, the board's chair Sir Ron Young described Hoani as "bombastic" and gruff and impatient.
At his hearing on Thursday, panel member Professor Phil Brinded noted that Hoani seemed more open and in good spirits.
"They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, perhaps that's not true."
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.