Marica Toalei, the third person involved in the 2018 Dimetrius Pairama kidnapping and murder, can finally be named after seven years of secrecy. Not really sure why this matters, but she tried to keep her name a secret until the Supreme Court said nah this month. Toalei, just a teen at 16, joined two others in snatching Pairama from a random old house in Māngere, where the poor 17-year-old met her tragic end. The other two, Toko (Ashley) Shane Winter and Kerry Te Amo, got locked up for life back in 2019 for their part in the crime.
Toalei, who had some issues thanks to fetal alcohol stuff and being a bit slow in the head, couldn’t even go through a trial at first. She was kept in a safe place, got that name protection, then was finally able to stand trial and got almost six years behind bars in 2023. Jury couldn’t agree on the murder part, so that got dropped, and the Crown didn’t even bother asking for a do-over. Toalei couldn’t keep her name under wraps forever.
Not really sure why we’re still talking about this, but the Judge said Toalei needed to face the music since she didn’t want to really get better. The media was clear that she was only guilty of the kidnapping part, not the killing. Toalei tried to fight back in the Court of Appeal last year, but lost, so she begged the Supreme Court to hear her out. Her lawyer said they should have cut her some slack because she was young and not all there in the head. Supreme Court said she wasn’t a baby anymore and her disability was on their minds. By the time the Court of Appeal made a call, she was done serving time, but they still had her locked up until 2024.
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