Murder of friend with gun alleged

Press, 19 May 1982, Page 7

Murder of friend with gun alleged

A man who was alleged by police in the District Court yesterday to have murdered a friend by shooting him in an Aranui flat, had used an old shotgun which was in a dangerous condition and with certain faults which made it ‘’considerably more dangerous to the firer," according to evidence. The defendant, Michael Campbell, aged 23, a labourer (also known as Michael Marino) elected trial by jury and denied a charge of murdering Frederick Walter Bellis, aged 25, in a flat in Rowses Road in the early morning of April 9. After hearing depositions or statements of evidence from 23 prosecution witnesses, Messrs R. M. Naysmith and V. C. Empson, Justices of the Peace, held there was sufficient evidence to commit the defendant for trial. He was remanded in cus-

tody to June 21, pending a date fS> trial in the High Court.

His counsel (Mr P. H. B. Hall) reserved his defence. Mr N. W. Williamson appeared for the Crown. A pathologist's evidence was that Mr Bellis died, of haemorrhaging due to a gunshot wound in the chest.

Witnesses gave evidence that a group of persons, including the defendant, went to the Woolston Tavern about 7 p.m. on April 8 and remained drinking there until closing time. The defendant met Mr Bellis, who was a friend, in the tavern and after leaving the tavern several of them, with Mr Bellis returned to Leilana Morgan’s flat in Rowses Road for more drinks.

Mrs Morgan, aged 29, a solo mother, said the defendant. who she knew as Michael Marino, had lived

with her since November last year.

She invited some friends to return to her flat after the tavern closed. She said she was drunk at her place, but was quiet and not yahooing. She said events that evening as she remembered them, were “pretty muddled up,” but the whole night was a good night with no arguments or fights that she remembered.

Mrs Morgan said she ended up going over to her girlfriend, Fiona, for a cigarette. She did not recall lying on her bed before that. She did not recall being upset when she went to Fiona's "but apparently I was.” She did not think she would be upset about damage caused to her cassette radio as she had damaged it at other times, and it was pretty old.

She vaguely remembered talking to Fiona that night. While she was there the police arrived. She said that on the afternoon of April 9 she saw the defendant at the Central Police Station. He was very upset and said he had "never meant it to happen” and that the gun had had a “hair trigger.”

They had discussed how the shooting happened. Apparently, she said, they had a bit of a tiff and she ran over to Fiona’s. They did not dicuss what this was about. Mrs Morgan said that apparently Freddie then interfered in some way after she left. The defendant asked him to leave but when he did not leave the defendant took a gun and used it to frighten him to leave the house. Cross-examined, Mrs Morgan said the defendant told her that the gun went off by accident. He did not mean it to go off. Fiona Margaret Matthews, aged 23, a solo mother, and neighbour of Mrs Morgan, gave evidence of babysitting Mrs Morgan’s children while Mrs Morgan and others were at the tavern. While she was in the house after their return there were no fights or arguments. Everybody was talking and drinking and listening to the radio.

She returned home and was in bed when Mrs Morgan arrived upset and crying, and came inside wanting a cigarette. Ten minutes later the defendant came over and said Freddie had been shot. Cross-examined, she said Mrs Morgan appeared to be

affected by alcohol. She got upset quite easily when she had been drinking. A police armourer, Constable G. R. Hewitt, said that test-firing experiments with the shotgun, and an examination of it for defects, showed it to be unsafe.

The shotgun lock was very loose, and there was a large gap between the chamber of the barrel and the breech face. As a result, the cartridge could move in and out of the chamber, against the breech face, upon being fired.

The firing pins in both barrels had been filed to sharper points, resulting in the possibility of the firing pins piercing the cartridge primer rather than detonating the cartridge. This occurred during testfiring of the gun.

The fault made the gun considerably more daiigerous to the firer, mainly because of a rearward flash of hot gases towards the firer's face, when a primer cap was pierced.

Although the trigger pressures were somewhat light, 1.95 kg and 1.56 kg, they were safe in regard to National Rifle Association guidelines. Cross-examined, Constable Hewitt said this type of shotgun had no half-cocked

position. Half-cock was a safety feature on weapons. It was of a type now banned from importation into New Zealand. Mr Hewitt agreed that the gun was not only unsafe, but dangerous. Re-examined, he said the gun could be fired without the hammers being cocked if they were struck a fairly hard blow, about 151 b, from the rear. Peter Rudolph Henschel, a D.S.I.R. scientist, gave evidence that investigations indicated the weapon's muzzle was about 1.2 m from the victim, when the gun was fired.

Constable J. L. Hol said he was called to investigate the alleged shooting at 2.18 a.m.

The defendant told him he was having an argument with Mr Bellis when he got the gun and pointed it at him to scare him but it went off. The defendant told the constable he did not mean it to happen. The gun just went off. It was all his fault.

He said everybody in the house was asleep. They were all a bit drunk. The defendant said he had called for an ambulance after the shooting. The defendant did not appear to be drunk, but appeared slightly intoxicated.