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Offender Databases Levi McPhee

Levi Tumene McPhee

Alias

.

Offences

Killing of Niaoming Lin in a New Plymouth street in February 2003

Victims

Niaoming Lin

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1983

Current Location

At large in Opunake

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to just two years six months in May 2004

Background
From the Daily News May 27th 2004
NIAOMING LIN was a 25-year-old high school teacher with a bright future. Last February, the English language student and a group of friends drove to New Plymouth from Auckland to celebrate the Chinese New Year. He had heard the city was a nice place to visit. Thirty-three days later, he was dead. In the High Court at New Plymouth yesterday, Justice Paul Neazor jailed 21-year-old Levi Tumene McPhee, the man found guilty of Mr Lin's manslaughter, for 2 years 6 months.

McPhee bashed Mr Lin in an unprovoked early-morning attack on Devon St, causing head injuries from which Mr Lin never recovered. Mr Lin died in Wellington Hospital's ICU on March 4 of multiple organ failure. His death was caused by progressive inflammation of the lungs. Justice Neazor told McPhee that, like him, he had probably not forgotten Mr Lin's tearful brother-in-law, Qingsheng Luo, tell the court how he had not wanted to die.

"He missed his parents, his family and this world," Mr Luo told the judge on April 23, the day after a jury reached its verdict. Mr Luo said Mr Lin's parents could not recover from their grief and distress, and since his death had spent their days weeping at his tomb. "They lost their only son, they lost their spiritual and financial reliance, they lost the hope of their lives. They even thought of committing suicide."

In Chinese culture, a son supported his parents in old age. "To them, losing their only son is more desperate and disastrous than losing their own lives." Justice Neazor said to McPhee that when he punched Mr Lin he did not know any of this and neither did he care who Mr Lin was or what he represented to anyone else. "You were fuelled by alcohol, you came on this man who was minding his own business. You were aggressive, you hit him hard without any suggestion of provocation or warning."

The judge regretted that McPhee's associate, who had been egging him on, was not in court to "accept his share of the penalty". If Mr Lin and his friends had been New Zealanders of the same age, they probably would have known to be wary of McPhee and his friends, he said. His remorse had to be balanced against the harm he had caused the Lin family and New Zealand's reputation as a safe place to visit, said the judge. Defence lawyer Stephen Harrop said his client had been remorseful even before Mr Lin's death.

The incident had had a serious emotional affect on him, he was depressed, tearful and had been suicidal, he said. McPhee's level of criminality was low -- the single blow was out of all proportion to the consequences, Mr Harrop said. "The victim was very unlucky to have died." The punch was followed by a series of unfortunate events, including a six-hour wait before Mr Lin was flown to Wellington Hospital, he said. He survived the head injury, but then pneumonia and other respiratory complications set in, he said.

Mr Lin's family, who live in China and Canada, could not return to New Zealand for the sentencing. The contents of Mr Luo's family statement were suppressed until yesterday's sentencing. Mr Luo said the family wanted McPhee to be given life imprisonment with a non-parole period of at least 10 years. "This man is a disgrace of this city and this country. McPhee can still cuddle his son after he killed Niaoming, even in the court during the trial, but my parents-in-law can never touch their son again."

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Corrections and Additional Information
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