Nelson woman who tried to run down ex in her car after night out says ‘emotions got the better of her’

A woman who tried to run down her ex-partner after she saw him in town when he was meant to be at home minding their children, said her emotions got the better of her.

Mariana Lynne Tehana admitted charges in the Nelson District Court yesterday of driving while drunk, reckless driving, assault with a blunt instrument and two charges of assaulting a person in a family relationship.

Her lawyer Kelly Hennessy said there was a reasonable backstory to the events that unfolded in the early hours of Sunday, November 26 last year.

He said the victim - Tehana’s former partner, was meant to have been at home minding the children under a shared arrangement they had, but she believed he had left them alone to head into town.

Tehana, 25, was in central Nelson and was drunk when she spotted her ex and called him to get into the car she was driving. After he’d got in Tehana became angry, punched him in the face and continued to accost him before he got out.

At around 3.20am Tehana was driving on Nelson’s Trafalgar St, on the wrong side of the road, before she turned into another street while remaining on the wrong side of the road.

She saw the victim walking along the street, and stopped the car, before another altercation occurred between the pair and the victim walked off.

The court heard Tehana did a U-turn and began to swerve through the intersection towards the victim before her car ended up on the footpath and made contact with the victim who was running away.

They fought again. The victim once more tried walking away but Tehana again drove onto the footpath and narrowly missed hitting him. She did another U-turn, mounted the kerb and drove on the footpath in another attempt to hit the man.

She was found by the police soon after in the carpark of a nearby supermarket. An evidential breath test showed she had an alcohol level of 580 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.

She told the police she hadn’t seen the victim in “five or six months” and her emotions had got the better of her.

Her ex wasn’t injured during the ordeal.

Tehana was remanded on bail for sentencing on April 4.