ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 156, 20 March 1923, Page 6

ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE

TUHI FACES JUDGE AND JURY PROSECUTING COUNSEL’S OPENING CASE LIKELY TO LAST A WEEK The solemnity that always attaches to a trial where the charge is of homicide invested the proceedings at the Supremo Court yesterday morning, when John Tuhi, accused of the murder of Herbert Henry Knight at Johnsonville on October 17, faced the Judge and jury. An . unusually large number of ' jurymen were challenged. Tuhi appeared collected, if not at his ease, in the dock. He was allowed the services of an interpreter. When the charge was interpreted to him ho firmly replied “Not guilty.” Mr. Justice Chapman presided. Air J. Scott appeared for the prisoner, and Mr P. S. K. Macgssey represented the Crown. Mr. George Jones was foreman of tho jury. It was coincidence that a juryman was. named Henry Knight. The Case for the Crown. “It is my unpleasant duty,”’ said Mr. Macassey, opening the case for tho Crown, “to have to present to you the charge of the murder of his employer, Herbert Henry Knight, against John Tuhi. Tuhi is a big, powerful Maori, aged 22, and the deceased was a man of between 40 and 50 years of age, strong and healthy. He came to Ahe country 20 years ago, and was a Contractor, carrying on business in and aroun.d Wellington. He was a sober, inoffensive, quiet man, who made no enemies, and was very deaf. In 1921 Knight bought a t small farm, ‘Tho Hollies,’ near Johnsonville, in a lonely spot, where he conducted a poultry and dairy farm. Ho kept a man to look after his interests there while he went to town to dispose of his produce or attend to his building business. In June, 1922, Knight took Tuhi into his employment at £1 per week. Nobody else was living there. It is. alleged by the Crown that Knight was murdered there, tho date being fixed by the discovery of newspapers with the body, which was located and exhumed on December 5.” . . The first explanation of the disappearance of Knight, said Mr. Macassey, was given by Tuhi on October 24, when Grant and Durant, Island Bay and Seatoun fishermen, visited “The Hollies” to see about tho purchase of a cart. Tuhi came to the door, and they took him for Knight. Asked if' he had a milk float for sale, Tuhi showed them one, which he eventually agreed to sell to Durant for £9. Grant also agreed to purchase a small cart for 30s. The explanation was made to Grant and Durant that Knight was away on holiday and might be back in a. week, or a little longer. At Seatoun the money was paid over by Durant, Tuhi driving tho cart in and selling some eggs to Sarah Brinkman, a sec-ond-hand dealer, at Courtenay Plane Durant was married to a hall-caste Maori, and he formed the habit of visiting Tuhi at Knight’s farm qvei week-ends. On one of these occasions Durant asked him where Knight was. Tuhi said that Knight was an old man, and owed about £lOOO, and he had gone awav to escape his debts. Turn told him lialf of the stock belonged to him and half ton Knight. He would sell out his share and go fishing with Durant at Seatoun. “Cone Away In Boat.”

Another explanation was made by Tuhi to a man named Leighton,’who, not receiving a definite reply the first time he asked, repeated his question on October 26. saving it was strange that Knight had not turned up. “Do you know where Knight is?” he said. Tuhi said, “No, I do not.” Leighton advised him not to take too much stuff off tho place, as he might get himself into trouble, since, tho police were watching. Tuhi said, “He not come back; he gone away in boat, adding that Knight had sold a lot of his goods before he went away. Tuhi told Constable O’Donnell, of Jonhsonville, that Knight, had gone, away to build a house at Lower Hutt, leaving in a horse and cart with luggage Tuhi showed the constable the place where, as he said, Knight had slept, but it was not where Knight actually did sleep. Asked to explain some burnt portions of blanket, Tuhi said that Knight had come home drunk, and had set fire to his blankets, and taken them out into tho yard to burn. "He Will Never Turn Up.” Mr. Maeassey next read statements made by Tuhi to the police. On Novomber 19, according "to counsel, constable again saw Tuhi, who said that ho had heard nothing more of Knight, who might have gone to Tasmania. The constable said: “You know 1 -where Knight is?” Tuhi then made the remark: “If I knocked Knight on the head, and buried him, you think I still here?” He said knight owed £lOOO. "If that’s so, replied the constable, ‘‘the police will get him.” ■ “No,” said Tuhi, they will never get him. Ho will never turn up ” A list of property which was known to belong to Knmht,and was stated to have been sold by Tuh*> was read by Mr. Maeassey. Tuhi had requested a man named Shields to tell the police that he was present when accused paid Knigjht £3 for some stock, but Shields refused. A man named Wallace was given the same explanation of Knight’s disappearance as that given to the constable. Tuhi accounted for the possession of. some of Knight’s tools by Durant by saying he had lent them. He told a detective: “Knight did not die, and I would not be such a fool as to bury him. Yon know Maori will not stay where man d : e.” Tuhi further said that Knight had gone to Lower Hutt to build a brick cottage, and had not come back. "I went to Lower Hutt to look for him, but I not hear anything of him.” The statement made by Tuhi that the cow sold by Hinn was bought from Leighton was untrue; it was one of Knight’s cows. Finding of the Body. Thei police asked Tuhi if Knight had gone away to Tasmania. Tuhi said it w.ts quite true, a man had told him so, but he could Jiot give the name of the man. After being further questioned about tho sale of a cow. Tuhi said: “I will tell you the truth about it all. Last September Knight s mother camo to the farm, and Knight told mo, if anyone asked for him, te sav that they had gone to Tasmania. Told that this story was not true, Tuhi said: “Yes. He die; I bury him near house,” and added t)hat nobody else knew that Knight was dead. Tuhi then took the police to where tho body was.

Tuhi led them to a patch of manure, and said that' the body was lying with its head pointing to the west Removing the manure and a covering of sticks, etc., they camo on a pair of Knight’s trousers, and two feet further down, upon newspapers dated October 12 and 17. Further down was a sheet of iron, and below that, the body. The body was that of Knight, and it had a wound some five inches in. diameter in the, skull./ Tuhi. when arrested, said' he understood the charge, but made no answers to the questions put to him. The medical evidence was that the deceased had died of the wound in the head, and that the wound was made bv a blow from .some heavy instrument such as an axe, and could not have been the result of accident. Six of the ribs were broken, but the evidence was that they were broken after death. e> The Crown Theory. It was alleged by the Crown that Knight was murdered in bed, while reading the paper. Knight was. known to sleep in his singlet and underpants, and that was all he had on in the grave. The Government Bacteriologist- had testified that the stains on the linoleum of Tuhi’s room, and on the wallpaper, and on the bed in Knight’s room, were human bloodstains. Tuhi was known to be in habit of takihg off his boots in the house at night, and it was alleged that the stains on the floor in his room came from his feet. Tuhi had made no suggestions that anybody else could have killed Knight. The burial ground had been carefully selected, out of tho way, and the heap of manure gave the grave an appearance of being merely a part of the usual farming work on such a mixed farm. Tuhi had, moreover, cleaned up the rooms after the disappearance of Knight. The motive for the crime was not far to seek, concluded Mr. Maeassey. It would be shown on evidence that Knight had arranged for a loan of £4(lt) to build a house at Alicetown, Lower Hutt. This was all ready a day or two before Knight disappeared, as Tuhi must have known, since he bad told the police that Knight was going to Lower Hutt to build a house. It was suggested by the Crown that Tuhi, knowing that Knight was to get a sum of money, murdered him to secure it. Then there was the fact that it was after the burial of Knight that Tuhi proceeded to. sell the cart, tools, and stock. Knight was last seen alive on October 16, 1922.

Mr. Maeassey said that there were many witnesses, and the case would probably'take a week. Evidence'on tho lines of that taken in the Lower Court was commenced. The hearing will be continued to-day.