A grieving mother says she is “utterly disgusted” that the man who killed her son has been found not guilty of his murder on the grounds of insanity.

“There’s no justice. Not in this country anyway,” Pauline Dixon said after a court appearance in High Court at Napier on Wednesday.

Her son Patrick Reweti, 49 was killed by Chalton Mason Lawson in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere on March 26, 2024.

The two men had never met before that day but were sitting in Reweti’s car with one of Lawson’s relatives. The relative was an old friend of Reweti.

Lawson, 31, then stabbed Reweti in the neck without warning.

After killing Reweti, Lawson drove the car to an orchard and set fire to it with the victim inside it.

Court documents say Reweti was probably already dead when the car was torched. The cause of death was the stab wound.

Murder, arson and insanity

Lawson was charged with murder and arson, but Justice Cheryl Gwyn found him not guilty on the grounds of insanity at a hearing today.

Patrick Te Tini Reweti was found dead in a burnt-out car in Flaxmere.

The court was told that at the time he killed Reweti, Lawson was psychotic, suffering from hallucinations and hearing voices, brought on by long-term methamphetamine use.

He was using the drug every day.

Lawson was also found not guilty on insanity grounds for causing grievous bodily harm following an attack on a prison officer at Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison in April 2024.

Lawson will be detained indefinitely as a special patient in a secure forensic unit.

Justice Gwyn’s order said he would be held there “until medical authorities are satisfied detention is no longer necessary”.

As Justice Gwyn announced her findings, members of Reweti’s whānau stood up from their seats in the public gallery and walked out of the court.

Lawson was not in court in person, but appeared from a secure unit on an audio-visual link where he spent most of the two-hour hearing rocking backwards and forwards in a chair behind a table.

‘Absolute disgrace’

Asked for her reaction outside the court, Reweti’s mother, Pauline Dixon, said she was “absolutely disgusted” at the result.

She said it was an “absolute disgrace”.

Earlier, she had delivered a victim impact statement to the court which said she was “emotionally broken” and deeply struggling.

“Patrick was loved beyond words. He is missed beyond measure,” she said.

Other family members made statements which described the slain man as honest, humble, reliable, hard-working, and his family’s breadwinner.

They said that when he was killed, he had been going around to see old friends to invite them to his coming 50th birthday party. Lawson’s relative had been a friend for many years.

Kaleesah Reweti outside court talking about her father Patrick Reweti, who was killed in 2024. Photo / Ric Stevens

Reweti’s daughter, Kaleesah Reweti, said outside the court she was also “really angry” at the outcome.

“My heart’s broken for my dad,” she said.

“I would like my father to be remembered as a kind, loving man, who was always giving,” she said.

“He was a man who would do anything for anyone, and I loved him so much.”

Other family members said they understood that Lawson had been a 501 deportee from Australia. They questioned why his mental illness had not been identified and addressed when he was forced to return to New Zealand.

Catching up with and old friend

The summary of facts said that before he was killed, Reweti, Lawson and Lawson’s relative had gone for a drive and parked up, where the old friends talked about when they were growing up.

They returned to Lawson’s place on Sunderland Drive, Flaxmere, however, and a short time later Lawson stabbed Reweti in the neck with a knife.

Reweti got out of the car and ran along the street before collapsing, bleeding profusely.

Lawson drove the car to where he was lying and put Reweti in the footwell of the back seat.

He then got a bucket and tried to wash away blood from the footpath before the two relatives drove off in the car.

Lawson’s relative was said to be “in shock and afraid for his own safety”.

Lawson dropped him off but about an hour later they met up again on foot.

Lawson told his relative he had “lit it [the car] up”.

A car was later reported to be on fire at an orchard on Irongate Rd West, near Flaxmere.

A search of the vehicle later found Reweti’s remains.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.