Man found guilty of manslaughter

Press, 3 November 1984, Page 6

Man found guilty of manslaughter

PA Wanganui Willem Hendrick Lentjes has been found guilty of manslaughter after a shooting in Taihape on June 7 when two persons died. A jury in the High Court at Wanganui acquitted Lentjes, aged 37, a driver, of the murder of John Robert Robinson and Shirlee Anne Lentjes. Mr Justice Ongley remanded Lentjes for sentence at Wellington on November 16. Defence counsel, Mr M.

H. W. Lance, in his final address called on the jury to consider acquitting Lentjes on the ground that the shooting might have been accidental. In the witness-box on Wednesday, Lentjes, the only witness the defence called, denied any conscious intention of shooting Mr Robinson or Mrs Lentjes, the accused’s de facto wife. There could have, been no prior intention to kill Mrs Lentjes because Lentjes did not know she would be at

the scene. Mr P. A. Moran, prosecuting, submitted to the jury' that everything Lentjes did was indicative of an intention to kill Mrs Lentjes and a reckless disregard of whether a serious wound inflicted on Mr Robinson would kill him. This established both deaths as murder. If the gun had been discharged accidentally the first time, Lentjes would have come to his senses, Mr Moran said.