Kaleb BELL 04/09/2024

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(1) of the Parole Act 2002

Kaleb BELL

Hearing: 4 September 2024

at Otago Corrections Facility via Teams

Members of the Board:

Judge J Kelly

Mr C King

Ms F Pimm

In Attendance:  [withheld] - Case Manager

Support Persons: [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Kaleb Bell aged 26, you appear for the first consideration of early release on parole.
  2. You are serving a sentence of two years three months’ imprisonment for discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
  3. Your offending involved you arranging to sell cannabis to another person and his associates, one of whom was armed with a sawn‑off shotgun.  You were threatened, stood over and robbed of your cannabis. Before the people who robbed you made off in their Mazda vehicle you managed to get hold of the sawn‑off shotgun.
  4. You got into your mother’s vehicle and pursued the Mazda.  You eventually pulled up beside the Mazda on a busy road in Dunedin just after 4.30 pm.  There were significant numbers of members of the public in the immediate vicinity.  From the driver’s seat you aimed the firearm at the victim who was sitting in the rear of the Mazda, and you fired a shot at very close range.  The shot hit the top of the doorframe leaving a large hole.  A single pallet hit the victim in the forehead but did not cause him any serious harm.
  5. You then did a u‑turn and waited for the Mazda to arrive. When it passed you fired a second shot smashing a rear window of the Mazda.  Another vehicle belonging to a member of the public was struck with pallets causing damage.
  6. You have previous convictions for violence, non‑compliance, dishonesty and alcohol and drug matters.
  7. Your security classification is currently high.  It is to be reviewed in October.
  8. Your statutory release date is 14 March 2026.
  9. Your current position is that you have not yet completed any rehabilitation.  You are waitlisted for the moderate intensity and AOD programme and the MIRP programme.
  10. You will need to lower your security classification and transfer to another prison to do the AOD programme, but you could start the MIRP programme in Otago in February next year.
  11. You have put forward a release proposal [withheld].  It has been assessed as a suitable address.  You also have an offer of employment [withheld].
  12. Before you can be considered for release, you need to work on your rehabilitation by doing the MIRP programme, which you can do at Otago Corrections Facility, and the DTP programme which you will have to transfer prisons to do.
  13. You have until 14 March 2026 left on your sentence and that is the period over which we must assess risk.
  14. For today your risk to the community remains undue. Parole is declined.
  15. You are scheduled to be seen next by the Board in June 2025 and before the end of that month.

Judge J Kelly

Panel Convenor