Killer paused attack to grab victim's rings

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Heather Simons' cerebral palsy did not stop her living independently or giving generously to her community.

She was not much of a drinker but she was a good neighbour who would have gone willingly when a woman new to the neighbourhood invited her over for a drink, her family says.

The new neighbour, Ana Andrea Hemara, 44, was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for murdering Ms Simons, also 44, at Whanganui on Valentines Day, February 14, last year.

Ms Simons' sister, Sylvia Judge, said after the sentencing that once Ms Simons had been dragged to the floor she would have been defenceless against Hemara's attack.

"She just didn't have a show," Ms Judge said. Ms Simons' condition meant she was weak and numb on her right side and her bent right hand was of little use.

In the High Court at Wellington yesterday, Justice Robert Dobson said Hemara, a mother of five with no previous convictions, had savagely beaten Ms Simons to death.

Prosecutor Lance Rowe said it was not a frenzied attack that Hemara had been unable to stop.

She had in fact stopped – to take the rings off Ms Simons' hand and put them on her own – before continuing to go "hard out".

Hemara told police that during the evening she thought Ms Simons was "coming on" to Hemara's boyfriend but Ms Judge said she had never known her sister to do such a thing.

Hemara dragged Ms Simons to the floor and punched, kicked and stomped on her with bare feet.

She pulled clumps of hair from Ms Simons' head and a pathologist counted more than 60 injuries although the number of blows could not be counted.

Then Hemara and her boyfriend set about changing Ms Simons' clothes and mopping up the blood before they summoned help. Justice Dobson said he thought hours, rather than minutes, passed so that the brain injury, from which Ms Simons died three days later, became well established.

Hemara pleaded guilty to obstructing the course of justice for the attempt to mislead police, and a Whanganui jury found her guilty of murder.

Justice Dobson said Hemara has to serve at least 13 1/2 years in jail before she can be considered for parole from the life term of imprisonment.

Ms Simons' death came just days after her father had died.

Her cousin, Aaron Potaka, who lived nearby and saw her often, said Ms Simons was independent and involved with the Citizens Advice Bureau and doing voluntary work for the Cancer Society.

Her 14-year-old daughter Sylvia now lives with her father in Coromandel.

- © Fairfax NZ News