Fatal crash driver guilty of theft

Nicole Marie Renolds appeared in Tauranga District Court yesterday. File photo.

The Mount Maunganui woman guilty of killing two people and injuring a third while driving under the influence of prescription drugs, has also been found guilty of stealing the empty pill bottles found in her car after the fatal crash.

Nicole Marie Reynolds, 40, will be sentenced on two charges of drug impaired driving causing death and one of causing injury on March 27.

Those charges carry a jail sentence of up to 10 years. Reynolds will be sentenced at the same time on the theft charge.

Reynolds used to work as a caregiver and was accused of stealing the bottles which were labelled as containing Cloneazepan from a client, Hugh Morgan.

Hugh's evidence, which was accepted by Judge David Cameron in Tauranga District Court yesterday, is that he always takes the labels off the pill bottles before he throws them out. The photos of the two pill bottles presented as evidence clearly had the labels.

Reynolds' evidence is she took the empty bottles from the rubbish bag on the end of the kitchen bench. She used one of them to contain anti histamine because she doesn't like the feel of foil.

A drug test after the fatal accident on July 29, 2016, found Cloneazepan, Lorazepam and Methadone in Reynolds blood.

Lance Carter, with his mate Kenny McCrae, were responding to a call from Lance's partner Leigh Antoinette Rhodes who had a flat tyre on SH29A at Matapihi.

They were in the process of changing the tyre when Reynolds ran them down, killing Leigh and Kenny, and seriously injuring Lance who is still recovering.

Reynolds also said in evidence that she took the Cloneazepan from her mother, without her mother's knowledge or consent.

You may also like....

6 comments

Prison sentence

Posted on 17-02-2017 08:07 | By overit

I hope this woman receives a stiff sentence for her out of control behaviour.


foil

Posted on 17-02-2017 08:13 | By whatsinaname

If she doesn't like the feel of foil lock her up with heaps of it


Absolutely!!!......

Posted on 17-02-2017 11:35 | By Jimmy

guilty of theft, she stole 2 lives!!!


Maximum Sentence Required Here

Posted on 17-02-2017 15:16 | By carpedeum

IMHO Our Justice system needs to step up and be tougher on crimes such as this ( causing TWO deaths while on drugs- let alone the stealing!!) Ten years does not even come close as a punishment for being responsible for the deaths of either of these decent innocent people


Will be more of the same

Posted on 19-02-2017 06:56 | By BennyBenson

Another case of justice not served coming up!


Up to 10 years behind bars?

Posted on 27-02-2017 08:01 | By groutby

Ok, excuses including troubles at home etc....10 to 5 years.....A few tears and "sorries"...5 to 2 years.....A promise of $$ compensation to the grieving family...2 to 1 year.....A smart pleading lawyer and a weak judge.....1 year to home "D"...There ya go..


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.