By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A MAN has been jailed for up to eight-and-a-half years over a “terrifying” armed home invasion in Narre Warren South, as well as two kidnappings and a car-jacking in March and April this year.
Henry Toatoalei, 29, of Noble Park, pleaded guilty to 15 charges at the County Court of Victoria on 7 October including charges of possessing a sawn-off shotgun and a sawn-off rifle as a prohibited person.
Toatoalei made full admissions, including kidnapping a man under the pretence of supplying him methamphetamine in Fountain Gate shopping centre car park about 5am on 18 March.
Once lured into the back seat of a Mercedes Benz four-wheel drive, the victim was put in a choke-hold by Toatoalei while another passenger punched the victim to the head and face.
As he was driven from the car park, the victim was unable to breathe and lost consciousness due to the choke-hold.
The victim was stripped of his shoes and shorts, and robbed of $1400 cash, mobile phone, cigarettes and 0.5 grams of ice – as well as the keys of the victim’s father’s Statesman parked at Fountain Gate.
Toatoalei admitted to then stealing the Statesman, which was dumped with a damaged front end in Broadmeadows three days later.
About 5.30am on 2 April, Toatoalei pulled a shotgun on a man parked in a hotel car park in Cranbourne and forced the victim to climb into their own vehicle’s boot as part of a debt-collection operation.
The accused held the weapon to the man’s face and told him he’d shoot the victim in the leg if he didn’t comply.
Toatoalei drove the victim’s Calais, with the victim in the boot, and co-offenders following in another car.
During the journey, the victim has managed to escape the boot into the front seat, and pleaded for Toatoalei to desist.
Toatoalei punched and then slammed the shotgun’s butt into the victim’s face several times. The victim was told he was only not dead because he had a baby due soon.
The accused attempted to blackmail the victim to sign over his car, but the victim was able to pop the boot during the journey and escape.
At 8am, Toatoalei – while armed with a shotgun – and an unidentified male broke into the victim’s home in Narre Warren South.
The intruders forced three occupants out of their bedrooms, ordered them to lay on their stomachs in the lounge room and demanded the whereabouts of the victim.
Toatoalei held a shotgun to the head of the victim’s brother and told him that the victim would be “dead”.
The house was then looted of wallets, phones, a TV, X-Box and video games.
The accused – who was said to profit by several thousands of dollars from the debt collection – later told police that the victim “knows why he f***ed up”.
On 7 April, a man and woman were forced out of a car at gunpoint by Toatoalei as well as other armed offenders in Springvale South.
The accused admitted to police he had lured the victim with the promise of drugs then stole the car and gave it to a friend.
During a Special Operations Group police raid of his home, a sawn-off rifle and sawn-off shotgun, a small amount of the drug ice and identity cards of the home invasion victims were found.
Judge Gavan Marshall said the “violent and protracted” offending was “self-evidently serious”; the home invasion “could have only been terrifying for your victims”.
Judge Marshall said Toatoalei was Samoan-born and subject to a dysfunctional background, including having a father in jail and being estranged from his mother since he was six years old.
There was still a chance of rehabilitation for the accused provided he overcame his long-standing alcohol and ice abuse, the judge said.
“It is a choice that you’re still capable of embracing.”
Toatoalei’s non-parole period was set at five years.
