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Westenra 'heartbroken' over friends' deaths in LA homicide

Westenra 'heartbroken' over friends' deaths in LA homicide

Kiwi singer Hayley Westenra singing with Thomas Deluca. Photo: Instagram/Hayley Westenra
Kiwi singer Hayley Westenra says she's "completely heartbroken" after learning of the double homicide of her long-time friends American Idol music supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband Thomas Deluca.
The Los Angeles Police Department said the couple, both 70, were found dead with gunshot wounds on July 14, 2025, but their investigation found a radio call had been made about a possible burglary at their home four days earlier.
Police believe the couple returned home and were confronted by the suspect, who already gained entry. Police said a 22-year-old suspect has now been arrested and charged with murder.
In a message posted on social media, Westenra said she only found out the news of the death of her "surrogate aunty and uncle" this morning.
"They were the KINDEST of souls. I'd met Robin & Tom over 20 years ago through work and then we became lifelong friends," the 38-year-old said.
"I stayed with them many times including my last night in LA when I was escaping a very bad relationship (they likely saved my life)."
Westenra shared a video of her and Deluca performing Lovers Game, which she said Kaye wanted her to post when they had been messaging a few months ago.
Music superviser Robin Kaye attends The 7th Annual Guild Of Music Supervisors Awards on 16 February, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Photo:for Guild of Music Supervisors/AFP
She said she had written a number of songs with Deluca and they had also been meaning to do a proper release for Greener Lands, which she performed live at Carnegie Hall.
"I want people to remember them this way … bright, loyal & loving souls."
Born in Christchurch, Westenra rose to fame after she signed with Universal Records New Zealand at the age of 12 and released a self-titled album in 2001.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the American Idol series told ABC that Kaye had been with the TV show since 2009.
"We are devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Tom's, passing," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time."
Kaye also served as music supervisor on Lip Sync Battle, After the Sunset, The Singing Bee and Q'Viva!: The Chosen as well as multiple Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants.
Singer and musician Deluca released his own albums Down to the Wire (produced by James Guthrie, Pink Floyd) and Street Rock, and had composed songs for artists like Kid Rock, Micky Dolenz and Diesel.
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Torture ringleader Israel Lama imprisoned along with ‘lieutenants'; younger brother granted mercy
Torture ringleader Israel Lama imprisoned along with ‘lieutenants'; younger brother granted mercy

NZ Herald

time20 hours ago

  • NZ Herald

Torture ringleader Israel Lama imprisoned along with ‘lieutenants'; younger brother granted mercy

Younger brother Sefelino Lama, who was 17 at the time of offending, was ordered to serve a sentence of home detention. He is expected to remain at the Grace Foundation rehab facility, which submitted a glowing assessment to the judge. Justice Downs pointed out repeatedly that, due to the younger defendant's age at the time, he was restricted from factoring the repeated violence into the sentence starting point. It included, however, shaving the victim's eyebrows, beating him and extinguishing a cigarette on his forehead. Authorities said Israel Lama instigated the May 2023 torture session after the victim slapped his girlfriend's bottom at an Auckland Central nightclub. But court documents suggest the 23-year-old had an interest in torture well before coming up with a feeble justification to exercise his cruelty. He had earlier created the handle 'torturous88″ on Instagram – 88 being a reference the the Head Hunters, widely recognised in New Zealand's criminal underworld. Some of the acts for which he was sentenced today were recorded and used as content for the now-deleted account. Six other men have admitted to having followed Israel Lama's lead that morning, including another younger brother who is set to be sentenced later this week. Power drill, hammer and pole The victim and the defendants were in downtown Auckland about 4am on a Sunday morning when the victim was confronted about his suspected inappropriate behaviour inside a nearby bar. He repeatedly denied touching the woman and agreed to go back to the bar to check CCTV with the group. Police later discovered through CCTV that he had touched the woman. Instead of taking the man back to the nightclub, the group took him to a Helensville home associated with the Head Hunters. The group made the victim strip naked before he was seated in a camping chair, as Lama ordered co-defendant Jade Jerome to bind his arms and legs with electrical cords. Jade Jerome appears in the dock in the High Court at Auckland in May 2025, just before pleading guilty to participating in the prolonged torture of a stranger. Photo / Michael Craig 'Israel Lama uplifted a Makita electric impact driver fitted with a screwdriver bit and started drilling a hole in [the victim's] left thigh,' the agreed summary of fact states, noting that the drill was also used on his shin and knee. 'The drill was used forcefully so that even though the impact driver was not fitted with a threaded drill bit, it deeply penetrated [the victim's] flesh and muscle approximately one centimetre.' As he drilled, Israel Lama began to interrogate the stranger, who continued to deny he had slapped the woman's bottom. His wounds were later treated with toilet paper and tape before the elder Lama switched torture tactics, retrieving a large knife that had been heated up on a nearby gas burner. The knife was used to cut the victim's chest before the flat end was used to cause severe burns, including on his face. The victim was then ordered by Israel Lama to get on the floor, at which point the crowd began punching and kicking him, including blows to his head. Group members passed around an aluminium pole and beat the man until the pole became so bent it was no longer usable. 'The defendants complained about this and taunted [the victim] for breaking the pole,' court documents state. 'They joked about having to beat [him] further for breaking their pole.' 'Right to hang your head' The beating stopped after Israel Lama came up with another sadistic tactic and ordered someone to bring him a jug of hot water. As others held down the squirming victim, the ringleader again ordered him to confess, which he refused. 'Israel Lama then poured the hot water onto [his] already seared chest and poured the hot water onto [his] genitals,' documents state, noting that others in the room yahooed and laughed as he did so. '[He] could not offer resistance and remained on the ground trying to protect his genitals.' Another person then splashed cold water on the victim. At that point, Jerome used a hammer to repeatedly hit the man's legs, shins and knees – making it difficult for him to walk afterwards. Israel Lama appears in the High Court at Auckland in May 2025. Photo / Michael Craig Israel Lama later took the victim's own belt and began whipping him with it. He then passed the item around as others in the room took turns – bruising his back and bottom. Samuel Lama – the brother who is to be sentenced later this week - strangled him for around 10 seconds, lifting him off the ground by his neck. The two younger Lama brothers stood guard after others 'retired from the torture to rest', making conversation with the victim and explaining that they used to be with the Bloods gang before switching allegiance to the Head Hunters. The victim asked if he could get dressed and the brothers refused – a callous indignity that the judge repeartedly referred to today. 'You are right to hang your head,' he told the younger defendant. The victim was subjected to another round of beating with the belt, while Israel Lama made racist remarks and comments about slavery, before the younger brothers and Jerome took him away because a gang meeting was about to start. But he was brought back about an hour later, at which point Lama debated with the victim whether he should let him go. He suggested the victim would need to pay him $20,000 before he could be set free. The victim said he didn't have that kind of money but offered to work for him to pay it off, the agreed facts state. He was dropped off where the ordeal started in Auckland Central. Lama had given him a deadline of four days to come up with the $20,000. 'Frankly disturbing' Defence lawyer Mark Edgar acknowledged his client's demand for money but said it wasn't extortion so much as a throw-away comment after Israel Lama had already decided to release him. The judge wasn't so convinced. Edgar also acknowledged his client was the 'elder statesman' of the group but said he was damaged by his own violent upbringing. Jade Jerome, left, and Israel Lama stand in the dock in the High Court at Auckland during their arraignment in May 2025. Photo / Michael Craig 'It was triggering for him,' Edgar said of the bottom slap. 'He was feeling rage. He had no plan. He was very distraught ... and very, very angry. '... This was very much an issue of history repeating itself.' The victim, who was referred to as 'X' because of his permanent name suppression, 'exacerbated' what happened due to his persistent denials, the defence lawyer said. He said his client realised 'the enormity of what he had done' after taking a short rest that morning. He then took steps to release the victim, he said. 'He's ashamed,' Edgar said. 'He's ashamed for his family. He's ashamed he brought his brothers in this, who simply followed his lead.' But Crown prosecutor Pip McNabb emphasised that the offending was 'cruel, callous and degrading' – and among the worst of its kind. She pointed out that he was already on bail for three seperate offences at the time of the offending and is now serving a three-year sentence for the previous crimes, including a disturbing robbery in which he urinated on the victim. The judge agreed. 'That X had slapped your girlfriend's bottom does not make your offending any less serious,' Justice Downs said. 'I reject any notion that it does.' He described the facts of the case as 'frankly disturbing'. Auckland High Court judge Justice Matthew Downs. 'Pleasure – I repeat, pleasure – was taken in the torture of a fellow human being,' he said, pointing out that the main defendant then used social media 'like a trophy'. The judge quoted extensively from the victim impact statement, which was not read aloud in court. 'I may have survived physically, but mentally I live with this every day,' the victim said, explaining: 'I don't sleep. I panic when I hear power tools or raised voices. 'I flinch in public. I carry the fear this could happen again.' The victim noted that, like the defendants, he had also known struggle and hardship. 'But never, ever would I think of doing something like this to another human being,' he wrote. 'Active lieutenants throughout' Also appearing for sentencing today were co-defendants Jerome, Harmon Unasa and Nathan Tuaiti. Co-defendant Ricky Harder, whose participation was found to be limited, was sentenced in May to home detention. Former Head Hunters prospect Ricky Harder appears in the High Court at Auckland for sentencing after admitting to having participated in the May 2023 kidnapping and torture of a stranger. Photo / Michael Craig Lawyers for Jerome and Unasa both told the judge today that their clients were remorseful for their participation. Jerome's lawyer, Ian Tucker, emphasised that his client has no ties to the Head Hunters. But prosecutors asked for a starting point sentence, before reductions were taken into account, of 11 years each. It was just two years less than the ringleader, McNabb said, because both men participated in the violence and served as Israel Lama's 'right-hand men'. The judge agreed to the 11-year starting point, explaining that anything less wouldn't be fitting of such a 'prolonged, multi-faceted and sadistic' kidnap and torture. He pointed out that there's nothing in court documentation suggesting that the ringleader asked Jerome to beat the victim with a hammer. 'You did that seemingly on your own initiative,' he said. 'That speaks volumes.' As with the other defendants, the judge declined to allow a reduction for remorse. Nathan Tuaiti appears in the High Court at Auckland to plead guilty to participating in the prolongued torture of a man who slapped the bottom of a mate's partner in an Auckland nightclub. Photo / Craig Kapitan 'There were many, many opportunities over the 19 or 20 hours for an act of compassion,' the judge said, explaining that it could have been as simple as offering the victim a glass of water. 'Something to acknowledge that he was another human. 'Neither of you, nor anyone else for that matter, did anything of the sort.' He ordered sentences of eight years and six and a half months imprisonment for Unasa and eight years and three months for Jerome. They, too, will have to serve at least half of their sentences before they can apply for parole. 'You were willing and active lieutenants throughout,' the judge explained. Tuaiti will be sentenced later today. More to come 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. Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Phone, lip gloss, condiments, cabbages: The claw grip takes hold
Phone, lip gloss, condiments, cabbages: The claw grip takes hold

NZ Herald

time21 hours ago

  • NZ Herald

Phone, lip gloss, condiments, cabbages: The claw grip takes hold

Some social media users have gone as far as displaying their hand-held necessities in disposable coffee trays. Others say that men could never successfully pull off this Jenga act; nor would they understand it. And these videos or photos of women clinging to their belongings are not polished; they are presented as the most mundane of girl experiences – the equivalent of posting your unaesthetic breakfast. They are also hilarious. 'I have seen my grandma do the claw grip all her life,' comedian Atsuko Okatsuka said in an email. 'Every grandma of every culture and race always has, like, a napkin or a piece of trash that they've been carrying around for a long time, maybe years. 'I have taken on the passed-down tradition of claw hands myself,' she added. 'Whether it's mayonnaise packets, or napkins or my cellphone, I am always holding stuff.' For Halle Robbe, personal experience with this tradition prompted her to create the GCS account on Instagram. In 2021, Robbe had run out to a nearby bodega. 'I just brought my keys, my wallet and my AirPods with me, and then I was going to get a Red Bull,' she said, noting that she did not bring a bag. 'I had it all in my hand so I took a photo and put it on my personal Instagram with some silly caption that was some version of, like, 'After hundreds of years of evolution, this is what I can do.'' Her friends responded to her post almost immediately, saying they do the same thing. Robbe created the GCS account that same day. She initially solicited photos from friends and co-workers, and now she receives more than 100 submissions a day. 'I think we've all been there when we have just, like, an assortment of stuff and we're running out the door,' said Abby Cox, 29, a fashion historian and a YouTube content creator. 'I need to make sure I have my glasses. I need my water bottle. Do I need to bring a snack? 'And so you're going out the door with your purse,' she added, 'and then the stuff that should be in your purse.' Purses? Pockets? Not necessary when you can palm a dozen items. Photo / Aileen Son, The New York Times A popular theory around the origins of the claw grip is that it is a reaction to Big Fashion's refusal to provide women with the functional pockets that are standard in men's clothing. It was not always this way. As far back as the Regency and Victorian eras, women had pockets in the form of bags that were tied around their waists underneath their big, flouncy skirts, Cox said. Their dresses had slits through which women could access these pockets, which could be as big or small as necessary. Alternatively, 'they would have pockets in the hems of skirts or they would have what we call butt pockets, because in the back pleats of gowns, you could hide a deep pocket,' Cox said. In one of her YouTube videos, in which she is dressed in Victorian clothing, she put an entire bottle of prosecco in such a pocket. In the late 20th century, as female clothing shifted toward narrower silhouettes and lighter textiles, substantial pockets became difficult to incorporate, so they were sized down or erased from garments altogether, she said. Perhaps in the quest for pocket parity, the claw grip is 'this weird thing of trying to go without bags and purses to prove a point,' Cox said. 'Are people, without fully consciously realising it, trying to prove we don't want bags anymore, we want pockets?' Several brands have managed to insert themselves into the claw grip chatter, offering products that enable carrying more stuff – think of the wallets or cardholders that attach to phones – which turns this act of making the otherwise invisible contents of a bag visible into a marketing opportunity. Among the products catering to the tendency of women to carry things in their hands is a phone case by Rhode that includes a lip gloss holder. Photo / Getty Images 'Unlike fashion, you don't generally see beauty brands because your products are in your bathroom or in your purse,' said Rachel Strugatz, a beauty correspondent at Puck. 'It's much harder for beauty items to become a status symbol in the way that fashion does with sneakers or shoes or handbags or literally anything else where you know what the brand is.' In February 2024, Hailey Bieber's brand, Rhode, released a phone case with a built-in lip gloss holder that generated a wait list of more than 200,000 interested customers. Now the case and the lip gloss have become immediately recognisable, partly because of how many times they're seen peeking through women's hands. Particularly Bieber's hands. This month, Glossier – which from its earliest days had packaged items in pink transparent reusable pouches – released a pair of terry-cloth shorts with a sliver of a pocket that fit only lip balms. There are also side pockets, which could fit a phone, and a single belt loop, potentially for key rings. When designing the shorts, Glossier did not set out to meet this phenomenon, but 'there was an unconscious knowing' that things are now more likely to be photographed out there, in the wild, 'especially something that would be otherwise hidden in a bag,' said Kyle Richardson, a senior designer at Glossier. (The morning of our interview, she carried her phone, office badge, wallet case and a bag of rice in one hand.) There are also theories that the claw grip reflects the chaos of the minds of women who are thinking through to-do lists and mentally writing text messages and running errands all at the same time. 'I think holding things in our hands actually is our need to keep something in control,' Okatsuka said. 'I started getting submissions that were like, 'Oh, I'm carrying XYZ and the weight of the world' or something metaphorical like that,' Robbe said. The claw grip, she added, could be seen as 'an extension of or in parallel with the mental and emotional and spiritual burdens that women carry'. In 2023, Robbe started a print magazine called Pinky to explore the 'metaphysical' things women also carry. It is an idea that artist Maira Kalman started to explore three years ago. 'One day at a farmers market, I saw a woman carrying an absolutely gigantic cabbage,' Kalman said in a 2023 TED Talk. 'It made me think of all the things women hold, literally and metaphorically.' Yes, they hold cabbages, balloons, phones. But also 'the home and the family and the children and the food. The friendships, the work, the work of the world and the work of being human. The memories and the troubles and the sorrows and the triumphs and the love. Men do as well, but not quite in the same way.' She turned her observations into a book of paintings. It is called 'Women Holding Things.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Alisha Haridasani Gupta Photographs by: Aileen Son ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES

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