ANNA SARGENT/RNZ
The man who drove into police officers in Nelson and killed Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming has been found guilty of murder.
Fleming and Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay were on foot patrol in Buxton Square in the early hours of New Year's Day last year when they were hit by a car driven by Hayden Tasker.
Tasker, 33, has been on trial at the High Court at Christchurch for murdering Fleming and seriously injuring Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay.
After just a few hours of deliberations, jurors returned to deliver their verdict this afternoon, finding him guilty on both counts.
The jury found Tasker intended to murder Fleming when he hit her with his car, rejecting his claim that he crashed into the officers in a failed attempt to take his own life.
The Crown argued Tasker was motivated by anger towards the police and used his car as a weapon to mow them down.
Over two weeks the jury heard from more than 40 witnesses, members of the public and police officers who were in the central Nelson car park at the time of the crash.
A ‘grandiose fantasy’
Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber told the jury Fleming was “senselessly and needlessly” killed when Tasker deliberately used his Honda Odyssey as a weapon, accelerating as hard as he could towards the officers at an estimated speed of 45 kilometres-per-hour, shortly after 2am.
“Hayden Tasker sitting in his car, drinking wine saw the two police officers. He watched them. He was angry at the police and he made a series of conscious decisions. To start his car, to leave his headlights off, to pull out of that parking space and manoeuvre his car around to the south, then to the west to accelerate, to drive straight into Lynn Fleming and Adam Ramsay,” he said.
Webber said the pair had done nothing to provoke or antagonise Tasker, apart from the fact that they were police officers in uniform.
“They were on duty, doing their job, keeping others safe and ironically, one of the risks that they had been considering that night was the risk of a vehicle intrusion attack,” he said.
Webber said Tasker’s actions did not fit the claim that he did not intend to hurt or kill the officers but wanted to take his own life.
“[He] didn’t stop, he didn’t jump out to see what had happened or to check on the people he had just hit,” he said.
Tasker’s behaviour during and after the collisions was inconsistent with a suicide attempt, he said.
“It was going to be glorious, like a movie. It was a rather grandiose fantasy that he might talk about, but had no real intention of ever carrying out,” he said.
‘Despicable’ behaviour doesn't make Hayden Tasker guilty of murder - defence
Defence lawyer Marcus Zintl said the crash was a “terrible, terrible, terrible tragedy” that “should not have happened”.
Tasker had already admitted three charges of dangerous driving.
Zintl said Tasker was driven by a desire to end his own life in a police chase rather than intending to kill or hurt police.
Tasker’s defence argued Fleming’s death was manslaughter.
“He was suicidal, he was on medication for depression, he was living in his car,” Zintl told the jury.
“He was alone, he had no close family support and virtually no actual friends.”
Zintl said Tasker’s father died when he was 16. His long-time girlfriend had recently dumped him, he was unemployed, on a benefit and had nothing going for him.
“He wanted to end the painful, pointlessness and pitifulness of his life that he was experiencing at that time, which is why he wanted to end up himself in a police chase,” he said.
Zintl said Tasker “drank himself silly” with a bottle-and-a-half of red wine, he was three-and-a-half times over the breath alcohol limit and filled his car with petrol before arriving in the car park that night.
The first collision, when Tasker drove into Fleming and Ramsay, happened six seconds after he started his car.
The second collision, when he rammed the white police patrol car, was around 26 seconds later in what Zintl said was a moment of madness, desperation, stupidity and empty-headedness.
The court was earlier played footage of Tasker's first police interview around 11 hours after the crash.
Zintl said Tasker's state of mind could be ascertained from his admission to police in that interview.
“I didn’t think of the consequences. I was in a bad headspace but that doesn't give me an excuse,” Tasker said.
The jury saw how he broke down in tears and vomited during that interview after learning Fleming had died.
Tasker said it “should have been me that died that day”.
“I never thought I’d kill anyone...didn’t really think it through,” he said in the interview.
Zintl told the jury Tasker’s actions were “despicable, deplorable and dreadful” but that did not make him guilty of murder.
Chaos among Buxton Square New Year's Eve revellers
Over two weeks, the jury heard from more than 40 witnesses, members of the public and police officers who were in the central Nelson car park in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The jury heard how Tasker drove into the Buxton Square car park in his White Honda Odyssey at 2.05am.
What unfolded shortly afterwards was documented by CCTV footage, cellphone videos taken by members of the public and eyewitness accounts.
At 2.09am, Tasker pulled out of a parking space and with his headlights off, made a tight u-turn, driving towards Fleming and Ramsay who were standing on a raised pedestrian crossing near the toilets in the centre of the car park.
Members of the public were forced to jump out of the way before the vehicle scraped past a red police car and hit the two officers, sending Ramsay into the air and landing around eight metres away towards another patrol car.
Fleming was carried with the vehicle and projected forward, landing around 20 metres from where she was hit.
“If there’s one glimmer of light in this otherwise very dark case, it is that so many decent people rushed in to help,” Webber told the jury.
Constable Molly Inman was the first to get to Fleming. She began CPR and was helped by other officers and members of the public before paramedics arrived.
Inman and another officer dragged Fleming towards the toilet block in Buxton Square when they saw Tasker’s car loop around the car park after the first collision and come back towards them.
Tasker then turned his headlights on and drove back to where he had hit the officers, ramming into the back of a white police car, shunting it several metres forward.
The impact knocked over Sergeant Craig Barker who had gone to Ramsay’s aid, left Constable Jemma Radcliffe who had been inside the car with a concussion and struck Tasman Cook, who was also helping Ramsay, with enough force it broke her arm.
Both collisions happened within 30 seconds of Tasker starting his engine.
A member of the public ran towards the car and took the keys out of the ignition. Tasker was pulled from the passenger side of the vehicle, arrested and taken to the Nelson Police Station where he was later charged with murder.
Fleming was taken to Nelson Hospital and placed on life support but died shortly after it was turned off.
She was the first policewoman to be killed in the line of duty in New Zealand.
