A woman who killed her cousin in a drink-driving crash near Auckland’s Waterview Tunnel, then tried to pin the death on another passenger, has been sentenced to prison.

Leilah Faamausili, 29, was already disqualified from driving because of a prior drink-driving offence when the single-vehicle crash occurred over the King’s Birthday weekend last year.

“Have I ever killed you before?” she had responded when one of her four passengers asked her to slow down – moments before she lost control of her Mazda Atenza, causing it to roll multiple times.

“The objective dangerousness of your driving was obvious,” Justice Simon Mount said last week as Faamausili appeared in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing.

The judge’s sentencing notes were released to the Herald today.

“Your actions placed a large number of people in danger,” Justice Mount said. “Your driving was persistently erratic... This was not a momentary lapse of attention or a split-second mistake.”

Emergency services attend the serious crash on State Highway 16 at the Great North Road off-ramp on King's Birthday weekend last year. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Faamausili had been consuming pre-mixed vodka drinks for about two hours that night while socialising with her extended family and associates in Manurewa. Eventually, she left with three of her younger cousins as passengers to pick up a fourth passenger in West Auckland.

“Ms Faamausili continued to consume alcohol while driving between Manurewa and Avondale,” the agreed summary of facts for her case states.

After swerving on to the wrong side of Rosebank Rd to pick up the other passenger, she headed towards the motorway, dangerously overtaking other vehicles and travelling at an estimated 80km/h in a 50km/h residential zone.

“Passengers within the vehicle were telling Ms Faamausili to slow down,” court documents state. “Ms Faamausili continued driving dangerously on to the Northwestern Motorway and accelerated to speeds of 130km/h.”

Her headlights were off and her car would not have passed a warrant of fitness inspection, although its condition did not contribute to the crash.

No one inside the Mazda was wearing a seatbelt when it started to roll. One passenger was ejected through an open window and landed about 4m away, but he survived.

“Have I ever killed you before?” Leilah Faamausili told a worried passenger moments before rolling her Mazda Atenza near Auckland's Waterview Tunnel off-ramp. Photo / Hayden Woodward

But fellow backseat passenger Saia Ifopo, 23, died at the scene after being thrown into the interior windscreen.

Two other passengers managed to emerge from the wreckage with minor injuries, but the defendant had to be removed by emergency responders after suffering a dislocated hip.

“Prior to being transported to Auckland Hospital, Ms Faamausili had a brief conversation with [one of the surviving passengers] before she implied to police that he was the driver,” court documents state.

She repeated the assertion to police at the hospital before admitting she had been behind the wheel.

“Twice they asked you to slow down,” Justice Mount reminded the defendant. “They had to rely on you to drive safely, and you placed all of them at risk, as well as members of the public.”

Ifopo, the victim, was described by his family in a series of victim impact statements as a father of three who was known as a shoulder to cry on and for bringing happiness and laughter to the lives of others.

Justice Simon Mount says the crash was not because of a momentary lapse of attention. Photo / Dean Purcell

Justice Mount ordered a starting point of six-and-a-half years’ imprisonment before allowing combined reductions of 45% for Faamausili’s guilty pleas, her background, remorse and her efforts and rehabilitation.

It resulted in a sentence of three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment.

“Ms Faamausili, your mother was an alcoholic and she obviously failed to be a role model for you when it came to alcohol,” the judge said, encouraging the defendant to turn her life around so she can break the cycle for her own child.

“It will not be easy, given the life you have had up until now. But I encourage you to work hard to be a mother your son can be proud of.”

The defendant was also ordered to serve concurrent two-month sentences for driving while disqualified, driving with excess blood alcohol and driving with a high risk amount of cannabis in her system.

“At the time of the crash, you had a blood alcohol reading of 96mg per 100ml of blood, about twice the infringement limit,” Justice Mount said. “You also had THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, in your blood with a reading of 5.1ng per ml. The high-risk level is 3ng per ml.”

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.