Man gets life for murdering father
The second brother in a Hawke's Bay family to have killed someone with a knife has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 11 years after he admitted murdering his 61-year-old father in Havelock North last year.
Johnathon Walter Middleton, 32, killed his father Walter William Middleton at a Danvers St, Havelock North, address on November 9, 2011.
He was sentenced this afternoon in the High Court at Napier.
Johnathon Middleton plead guilty to murdering his father in the High Court at Napier on August 30 this year.
Walter Middleton had worked as an engineering assistant at Whakatu Coldstores, where he had been employed for at least 10 years. His boss, Ross Tougher, said his former employee was ``big hearted''.
"He was the type of guy who if he had 100 jobs on and you asked him to do one more, he'd do it,'' Mr Tougher said. "He was really well respected and well liked here.''
It's understood the 61-year-old had taken on many foster children during his life.
Middleton is the second brother in the family to be jailed for a fatal stabbing after his brother Aaron Justin Middleton was sentenced to eight years' jail for killing his 16-year-old girlfriend Karen Nant more than a decade ago.
Aaron Middleton had denied stabbing her in an argument over dinner, claiming the fatal wound to her throat was caused when he flicked a vegetable knife in her direction without expecting such consequences. A jury found him guilty of manslaughter in the girl's death which happened in a Hastings flat on September 27, 2001.
