CHARGE OF MURDER

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 192, 11 May 1937, Page 11

CHARGE OF MURDER

> r Trial of Young Maori at Auckland j OPINION OF ALIENISTS By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, May 10. In a clear voice, Johnny Toka, a Maori labourer, aged 24, charged with the murder of his father at Patumahoe on February 21, pleaded not guilty when charged at the Supreme Court. A few seconds afterward Toka repeated, t ‘‘l plead not guilty.” The charge is the outcome of the 3 shooting of an elderly Maori. Toka E Whakaia, as he sat around the fireside ■ with bis family. The shot was fired J through the malthoid wall of his whare. " ’ “Tlje facts are simple, and Ido not anticipate any dispute about them. The real matter you will have to con- , sider, subject to correction from the ’ learned judge, is the responsibility of accused for his actions, taking into ! consideration his mental stability, : said Mr. V. R. Meredith, Crown prose--1 cutor. Accused had been an inmate of ■ the Tokanui Mental Hospital from 1 May, 1935, to February, 1936, and had thus been released for practically a ! year. After his discharge Toka had 1 iived with his parents and other members of the family at Patumahoe. There had been a few quarrels among them. Accused had quarrelled with his father when the latter complained of his disinclination to work. Qn the day of the tragedy there had been a-dispute ft bout accused’s desire to go to the Pukekohe show. Accused had been advised to go to hospital for a complaint from which hj was suffering, and apparently did not want to go. He was apparently harbouring some resentment about these two things. Mr. Meredith then explained how the old man, when sitting around the fire at night, was shot through the wall and how accused immediately afterward came into the whare with a gun in his hand. His mother took it from him an;J then Toka attacked his sister and struck her with a kettle. She lay on the floor feigning death. Accused then took the kettle and struck his father, who was lying on the floor. Accused afterward rode over to some neighbouring Maoris and told them he had killed his father and his sister. He asked these Maoris to go over to the whare with him. On the way back accused was overtaken by the police. To them he admitted he had shot his father. Accused had been examined by alienists after the shooting, and on various occasions since. The opinion they would express in evidence would be to the effect that, though accused knew he was shooting, his mental condition made him incapable of appreciating that what he was doing was wrong. After several witnesses were heard the hearing was adjourned.