MURDER CHARGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 December 1940, Page 2

MURDER CHARGE

WIFE COMMITTED. [per press association.] WELLINGTON, December 4. The hearing of evidence was continued this afternoon in the case wherein Jean Laurentine, aged 31, was charged in the Magistrate’s Court to-day with the murder of her husband, Francis Norman Laurentine, aged 37, a watersider, by stabbing him on November 2. Laurentine was taken about 7.30 p.m. from a flat which ■he and his wife occupied in Willis Street, suffering from knife wounds, and died in hospital at 8.50 p.m. Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., was on the Bench. The acting-Crown Prosecutor, Mr W. R. Birke, conducted the prosecution, and Dr. A. C. Mazengarb and Mr W. T. Gillespie appeared for the defence.

Dr. D. J. A. Doyle, of the Wellington Hospital, said Laurentine, when admitted to hospital about 7.50 p.m., was suffering from extreme shock, and his pulse could not be felt. His breathing was irregular, and gasping. He had three wounds, one about an inch long betwen the ninth and tenth ribs, one in the left groin, and a small one in the left thigh. There had been considerable haemorrhage, and in spite of treatment, the patient died about 8.50 p.m. James Dillon, a hospital porter, said that when Laurentine reached hospital in the ambulance, Mrs Laurentine was holding her husband s legs up in an endeavour to save his 'blood, and said to him: “You might be the biggest rotter on earth; but you know I would not do it.” She was upset, but not hysterical, and did not appear to be under the influence of liquor. She offered to give a blood transfusion. Detective Smeaton said he and another detective saw Mrs Laurentine at the hospital. She was hysterical, and smelt strongly of liquor. She agreed, to go to the detective office. In the car on the way there accused said: “We quarrelled, and he hit me twice on the face. I fell and hit my head. Feel the lump on my head. She directed the witness’s hand to her head, and he could feel a lump about an inch in diameter there. “I stabbed him with a knife I was using to cut lamb’s fry with. The knife is now on the bench. Laurie said: ‘Jean, you quick-tempered , y° u have stabbed me.’ I said: ‘I know. I meant to stab you.’ ” For the rest of the journey she was staring into space. Witness and the other detective went to the Laurentines’ flat, where there was a carving knife on the bench. There appeared to be blood on each side of the blade. A frying pan contained pieces of cooked lamb’s fry m fat. Accused had nothing to say after being charged with murder. Cross-examined by Mr Mazengarb, the detective agreed that accused s attitude was to conceal nothing. She was concerned about her husband. At the conclusion of the pglice evidence Mrs Laurentine was committed for trial in the Supreme Court in February.