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Offender Databases Stephen Rukuata

Stephen Robert Rukuata

Alias

.

Offences

Murder of a young Papatoetoe woman at her flat in November 2005
Also a previous drink driving offence

Victims

Bianca Nicole Stewart

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1981

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to life imprisonment (ten years minimum) in May 2007
Eligible for parole from November 2015

Background
NZ Herald story here and also here
From Yahoo Xtra story here
Stephen Rukuata, 25, a car groomer, was on trial in the High Court in Auckland this week for the murder of Bianca Nicole Stewart, 20.

The mother-of-two was found dead in her Malaspina Place flat by neighbours. The jury returned its verdict late last night after deliberating for 12 hours. Rukuata is likely to be sentenced next month.

In his defence Rukuata argued that he was provoked by the victim, his partner and the mother of their children and lost control. The jury was directed by Justice Mark Cooper to return a guilty verdict of either murder or manslaughter after Rukuata admitted the killing.

"He had admitted killing her and it was just a question of whether the jury accepted provocation, and obviously after a long argument they found what she said did not constitute provocation so they found him guilty of murder rather than manslaughter," said his lawyer, John Wiles. Rukuata faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with at least a 10-year non-parole period.

From NZ Gazette September 2000
On 25 August 2000 at the District Court at Rotorua, Steven Robert Rukuata, of Rotorua, was convicted and sentenced to 2 months periodic detention and disqualified from holding or obtaining a motor driver’s licence for 9 months from 12 October 2000, following his conviction on 25 August 2000, for an offence of driving while disqualified and for driving with excess breath alcohol

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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