Murder charges against five accused reduced

Press, 10 November 1988, Page 22

Murder charges against five accused reduced

PA Palmerston North

The body of Nigel Raymond Taylor, aged 20, of Pahiatiia, was not discovered for more than three months after he died, the» District Court at Palmerston North was told. A painter, Tui Taana

Mark, aged 30, and a farmhand, Lee Irwyn Hopa, aged 24, have been charged with murdering Mr Taylor on April 29. Hopa has also been charged with trying to pervert the course of justice by making threats to, and intimidating Kelvin George Fleming to stop him making a statement to police about circumstances surrounding Mr Taylor’s death. Murder charges against five others were reduced yesterday to charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to injure. The five were: Warren Huia Edmonds, aged 44, unemployed, Alice Jane Evans, aged 21, a machinist, Niki Epiha, aged 26, a factory hand, and Craig Duane Hemopo, aged 27, an Access tutor — all of Pahiatua — and David

Cedric Papa, aged 23, unemployed. Murray John Houghton and Hugh Digby Rockell told the court they found Mr Taylor’s body on August 8 near sheep sheds on Totaranui Stud, where they worked. They told their boss, who called the police. Mr Houghton said the yards had not been used much since April.

He said he remembered seeing a 1967 Valiant parked outside the farm on April 29, the date alleged when Mr Taylor died.

The car was dented, with a broken windscreen, Mr Houghton said. Later than day he saw a green Mini near the Valiant.

Two men were lifting the Valiant bonnet and “mucking around in the battery area.” He couldn’t

described the two men. Two days later, he heard bashing sounds like a car being winched on to a trailer. The car was gone the next day.

Mr Rockell said he went to a party at the Pahiatua marae on April 29.

He did not know Mr Taylor, so could not say if he was there. He knew someone had been involved in an accident that night.

Mr Rockell’s wife, Madeline, told the Court she had seen Hemopo and Edmonds at the party.

Palmerston North Hospital pathologist, Dr Roy Darby, said he had been unable to determine the cause of Mr Taylor’s death.

But, he believed it had been associated with a “physical trauma.”