TRIAL OF MUNN

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1930, Page 3

TRIAL OF MUNN

THE CROSS-EXAMINATION

SOUNDS IN MORNING

DENIED BY PRISONEE

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, 22nd U.ay.

,The Crowii Prosecutor, Mr. V. B. Meredith, continued his cross-examina-tion of Arthur Thomas Munn, charged with' wife murder, in the . Supreme ' Court yesterday afternoon. . "On the Friday you were at home, that afternoon Mrs. Munn was not at all wclh' "—" When I left at 3 o'clock sho was quite well." ; "You heard Mrs. Gill say sho looked in and saw a remarkable change; Your wife looked as though she was dying?" —"Yes," "Do you agree with Mrs. Gill?"—"I; did not see her when Mrs. Gill did. I had left her within half an hour of Mrs. Gill seeing her, and I had just succeeded in calming her down after Mrs. Brown seeing her." ' "You suggest she was upset by Mrs. Brown?" —"Yes." "You have known of this disturbance between Mrs. Brown and your wife since it occurred?"—" Yes." "Can you suggest why Mrs. Brown was not asked about it in the witness- . box?"- —"I can't say anything about that." • ■ "I am going to recall Mrs. Brown, and she will say that is untrue."—"l, am repeating a conversation. My wife told me that she had practically told Mrs. Bro-\vn to get out of the house and keep out,.as she was only annoying her by interfering with the children." "On the Saturday, the day following, were you worried about your wife 2"—> "No." "]Nfot alarmed at all?" —"No." "What did' you do ion the Saturday morning!" —"I went to town." '■'Where did you go first?"— '"£6. Takapuna." . . ' ' . . MEETING- MRS. STUCK. "What for?"—"To pick up a letter from Mrs. Stuck. I said I would go." "Is that sufficient warrant why you should go?"—"I said I would go, and I generally keep my word." "Who was, in charge of your wife that morning?""—" The two children." '' Was your duty to go to Takapuna to get' a letter from Mrs. Stuck more than your duty to your wife?"—"My; wife was not neglected." • ■ "You got a wire?"—" Yes." " That is the wire saying Mrs. Stuck would be on the train?" —"Yes." : • ..'. "What did you go to town for!"— "To get my ■ wife ■ some fruit and to meet Mrs. Stuck if she was about." "Did you get the fruit?"—" Yes." "What did you want to meet Mrs. Stuck for? She was nothing '.to you, ' and you had a wife desperately ill?"— "She was,a friend, and I would naturally want to see her on her return." _ "Although you knew then the police were making inquiries you didn't tell them anything of your opinion.that your wife had -taken poison herself?" — "No." • •" . " ■ "When your wife made statements to you that she would get better and that' sho was deceiving the doctor, didn't you take a hand and insist upon knowing what she was doing?"— "N0.." ■ . ' THE FATAL MORNING. Munn said that when he got up" on! . Tuesday, 11 th February, the day of Mrs. - Munn's death, lie wont out to feed the fowls. When he returned ho gave attention to his wife and' then prepared salts for her. "I took these into my wife and put them on the chest of drawers," he said. "My wife asked me to stay with her, and I asked, 'What is the matter?' She said She was .afraid she was going to have a turn. She said she did not want the doctor, and I said, 'If you are going to-be bad I will get the doctor. Before the tremblings commenced I went out for a short while." Munn said his wife was g'aspiug at' 7.30 and 8 o'clock; although he did not recognise her condition from the demonstration by-Mrs. Gill. Mr. Meredith: "How many convulsions did she have before you went for the doctoT?"—"At least two distinct ones." . Mvii n went on to deny that there had been any cries by his wife as'testi'fied to by Mrs.. Gill. - Mr. Meredith: "So, according to you, Mrs. Gill said something that is untrue?"—" Yes." "Do you say you were not walking round till 7 a.rn.V'—" Yes. Mrs. Gill must have been mistaken." DOCTOR Tq BE RECALLED. "I intend to recall Dr. Dudding. He will say that on the morning of her death you s,aid nothing to him about the arching of Mrs, Munn's back." —"Tho doctor drew my attention to it, and I said I had never noticed it before." "So if what you now say is correct, you did not see all the symptoms?"— "I said I saw all the symptoms except the arching of the body." ; Munn said that Mrs. Munn had made no cries of any description except the gasps which he had mentioned. He could not account for the sounds Mrs. Gill said that she had heard at about 6 o'clock. His wife made no sounds until after 7 o'clock. Mrs. Gill was mistaken, Mr. Meredith: "Mrs. Gill referred to these cries when you came down for her?"—-"No; Mrs. Gill said nothing of the sort. Mrs. Gill did hot, mention crying to me, and she could not have heard anything." * ■'•„.„ • Mr. Meredith: "Then Mrs. Gill is saying something she cannot prove? —- "Yes; that is so." • ■ ',",.. Regarding the poison, Munn said Ins wife was the only person other than himself who knew, of its presence vi the pantry. Witness said it did not occur to him that this had any connection with the purpose of which Mrs. Munn had been speaking, and her veil- ' ed threats to do something to alter he? . condition. On one occasion only lie had used the drawer in which the bottle was found, on the evening of Wednesday, sth February. He went there to get a collar. He did not sec the bottle there then.

Regarding the placing.of furniture in Mrs. Munn'a bedrdom, Munn disagreed ■u-ith the evidence of two detectives xr this matter. ' . At this stage the Court adjourned.