David Jackson Mahia (31) was charged after Invercargill mother-of-two Nicola Jean Fleming (38) was so severely beaten she had a fractured face, pelvis and sternum, seven fractured ribs, and abrasions and bruising to almost every part of her body.
In the High Court at Invercargill yesterday, Mahia was also sentenced to a concurrent term of eight years in prison for sexually violating Ms Fleming during what Justice Cameron Mander said was a prolonged beating fuelled by Mahia's ''vengeful rage''.
Mahia, who originally denied the charges, changed his pleas to guilty last month, a week before his trial was to begin.
''Brutal, cruel, depraved and callous'' were all apt descriptions of the attack on a small-framed woman who was isolated and alone and unable to call for help, Justice Mander said.
But he said he accepted submissions from both the Crown and the defence that Mahia did not set out to kill Ms Fleming.
Mahia and Ms Fleming had been in an intermittent relationship, Justice Mander said, and on February 8 last year spent some hours together with a female mutual friend.
Early the next day, Mahia went to the mutual friend's house and they had sex. The friend told him Ms Fleming was in another relationship. He became angry and went to the central Invercargill hostel where she lived to ''give her a hiding for her perceived infidelity''.
The attack occurred in the car park outside the hostel and in the Otepuni Gardens across the road. It included Mahia throwing her in the Otepuni Creek, then ripping her clothes off.
Justice Mander said when Mahia went to leave Ms Fleming at the gardens, she told him she could not walk and Mahia helped her back to her room, where he put a blanket over her and left.
Later in the day, he returned to the hostel and found Ms Fleming dead in her room.
He then went to see members of his family and visited his father's grave before turning himself in to police.
Mahia stood impassive in the dock as three members of Ms Fleming's family read victim impact reports.
Her brother, Brendon, said his ''beautiful sister's'' death had destroyed the family.
''All this man had to do was keep his hands to himself and none of us would be here. He didn't have the right [to take her life].''
But he said he forgave Mahia because that was what his sister would have wanted. He said he would have to conquer his dislike for Mahia because he did not want hate to consume him.
Ms Fleming's cousin, Leonie Simpson, gave her victim impact statement in Maori.
Ms Fleming's father, Kerry Fleming, said the injuries his daughter received were ''burnt in his mind''.
''The way she died ... It is obscene, one human being being beaten to death by another.''
His daughter's death had robbed two children of their mother and they would grow up carrying the same pain as older generations of the family, he said.
For Mahia, Robert Lithgow, QC, of Wellington, said while the Fleming family had been ''struck by the tsunami of grief a violent death brings'', his client was also well aware of the pain and despair his actions had brought.
''The only useful thing he can do [in prison] is to learn to become a decent person and live a decent life, and he is determined to do that.''
