PRICE TO DIE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 124, 28 May 1935, Page 10

PRICE TO DIE.

MURDER TRIAL.

VERDICT OF GUILTY.

JURY'S SHORT RETIREMENT.

»! ', THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED. 'I (Hy Telegraph.—Press Association.) •j HASTINGS, this day. A crowded courtroom heard the i sentence of death passed upon Charles William Price, alias Edwards, aged 47, a teamster, when, after a retirement of little more than an hour, the jury returned late yesterday afternoon with a verdict that he murdered Evelyn .Mary Madden. | Price was not visibly moved when the . verdict was returned against him, nor ; did he appear to suffer any stress when. donning the Mack cap, Mr. Justice Blair pronounced sentence of death. The only sign of emotion the con- ; demned man showed was when lie was j asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not he passed I upon him. In reply he almost shouted "Xn!" There was a most intense atmosphere in the courtroom while, the jury was absent, and during the five minutes which elapsed between the jury's return and his Honor's entry into the chamber. All attention was focused on Price as the sentence was pronounced, and there »:iii a little murmuring. A slight buzz of murmuring broke out, when, after Price had been removed, his Honor addressed the jury and granted them seven years' exemption from jury service. Whispering repeated the phrase "Seven years'' all round the court chamber, but silence was restored by a cry from the court orderlies. Detectives' Work Commended. Pew people bothered to leave the courtroom during the jury's absence, evidently an early verdict being expected. When Price had been removed from the dock the foreman of the jury announced that the jury wished to recommend that the work of DeteetivoSerjreant ,T. Bickerdike, Detective B. Farqtlharson, and acting-Detective H. F. Coddingtoii should lie placed on record for the manner in which they placed the case before the jury. His Honor commended the manner in which the defence had been conducted, and Paid that Mr. S. Averill and his associate, Mr. T. E. O'Dowd, had nothing with which to reproach themselves. Mr. Averill's closing address had been admirable. His Honor said lie had closely watched the defence, and so far as he could see counsel had not made a Kindle mistake.

Following Mr. Averill's address, the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. H. B. Lusk, in Ilia address to the jury, pointed out discrepancies in Price's story to the taxidriver as to the reason why he took the girl into the paddock. Accused said in evidence that there was no talk of Hollis' until they sat down, but ho had told the taxi-driver when he left that he was taking her to Hollis'. He also told the taxi-driver he had left her at Hollis', but in his evidence he had said they had had a tiff and that when she walked off that was the last he had seen of her. " Explanation Required." "This one fact is certain," he continued. "Accused was the last person to be alone with Miss Madden while she was alive. They' were together there, not far from where her body was eventually discovered, and naturally an explanation is required from accused." Price, continued Mr. Lusk, had said he was fond of the girl, but he did not even follow her when she left him. The man who committed the crime certainly took her money. There was not a "copper left in her purse—not a penny for her to pet bank to town with. Everything was gone. The question was: "\*'ho was the man who <rot away with it''" Mr. Averill had suggested that another man might have come on the scene and waylaid and murdered her. but it had to be remembered that the place where her body was found was not even in the direction of Hollis', where accused stated he left her. "It was never suggested that, there was premeditation. Mr. Averill had said this man never would have taken out this frill in a taxi cab in order to commit this crime. I do not suggest it was premeditated up to the time of the accused and the girl disappearing from the view of Guild. Price," said Mr. Lusk, "took charge of Miss Madden's suitcases, knowing she was Jcft in the backblocks with no clothing other than that she was wearing. He never made any inquiries a* to what became of her. His Honor's Summing Up. His Honor, in summing up, said that if a set of circumstances weve capable of giving two inferences, one of the guilt, and one of the innocence of an' accused person, then the jury was bound to give the accused the benefit of the doubt. Jn traversing the evidence, his Honor said there wa.i no evidence of premeditation right up to the point where accused left Guild's motor car at the ploughman's camp on the backward journey. Guild's state-ient that Price had said he was taking the girl to Hollis was denied by accused. Tf the jury accepted the evidence of Guild, that was in favour of the Crown's case. On the other hand, if they accepted Price's statement, then it was of no help to the Crown. Next, the judge continued, it was for the jury to consider what importance they attached to Price's taking the girl to Hollis' by way of a paddock. The jury themselves had seen the locality-, and it was for them to consider whether the fact that it was a lonely spot was of any significance. According to Guild accused told him that the girl was i 'taying with Hollis, who would take her to the train the following morning The Crown claimed that Price said what he knew to be untrue. On the other hand, Price claimed that by Hollis' he meant Hollis' property, and not the Hollis homestead, and lie denied saying that Hollis would drive the girl to the train next morning. It was for the ■ jury to say which of these two versions they would accept. i Accused's Wet Feet. Regarding Price's wet feet when he \ returned to the car, his Honor said that , he did not think the Crown suggested > that that was the result of his pushing < the body into the water, but of his hav- i ing returned to the road by traversing i country near where the body was found. ( The jury had heard the evidence as to t how Price accounted for the blood on ( his coat, and it was for them to say 1 how much or how little value they ; placed on that evidence. On February ( 7, the cvidcucc showed, accused took c

possession of the girl's cases, and the Crown relied on that fact to show that Price thought nothing more would he hoard of the girl. The weight to be placed on that evidence, for they hud heard accused's explanation, was entirely a matter for the jury. Passing to .statements accused made to the police, his Honor said that accused had been drinking gin and had made 11 start on methylated spirits, but that drink had been taken at 11 o'clock in the morning, and the statement was given at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The statement up to the journey with the girl was accepted by the police as true, and the statement relating to the journey to the locality with the girl comprised misstatements. "In all fairness to accused, I am bound to say that the Crown has not established premeditation on the part of accused,"' his Honor added. "So far as the state of the girl's disarranged clothing is concerned, you must remember that you are trying a case of murder and not one of rape, and the condition of the girl's clothing can only be evidence as to motive.'' The jury retired at 4.0 and returned at 5.15 with a verdict of guilty.