MAREO’S DEFENCE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 156, 17 June 1936, Page 9

MAREO’S DEFENCE

Counsel Completes Address to Jury PROSECUTOR’S REPLY By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND. June 16. The hearing of evidence In the retrial of Eric Marao on a charge of murdering his wile concluded to-day, and Mr O’Leary made his address to the jury. He particularly stressed the different demeanour of | the accused when questioned about the veronal and the corrective medicine as showing that he felt no guilt where the sleeping draught was concerned. The address for the Crown was unfinished when the Court adjourned. Ihe prosecution is being conducted by the Crown Prosecutor, Mr. V. It. Meredith, and with him is Mr. F. McCarthy. The defence is in the hands of Mr. H. F. O’Leary, K.C., Wellington, supported by Mr. T. Henry and Mr. K. C. Aekjns. Mr O’Leary, addressing the jury, asked them to consider what would be the end of the trial for the man in the dock charged with murder, the penalty of which they knew. Would he be free to return to his and his friends or would lie return to the cell where he had been incarcerated ?

Veronal was not a murderers weapon, counsel went on. Records showed that the deaths Irom veronal in the case of adults rose, in the mam, from misadventure and suicide. What might kill one person might have little or no effect on another. A person sotting out to murder by veronal could have no idea us to how much to give. The Crown had selected the possibility that Marco had given veronal to Mrs Mareo. He did it, the Crown said, at a time when Mr and Mrs Mareo were said to be happy and when Freda Stark was present. DIXIELAND QUARREL. The defence, said Mr O’Leary, contended that the most likely alternative was that Mrs Mareo, by accident or design, took veronal herself. It was most likely and most consistent that she had had some innocently on the Friday night, that on Saturday she got up, after the manner of persons under the influence of veronal, or even without getting up, and took the store of veronal, and that was what killed her. Mr O’Leary dealt next with the relations between Mareo and Eleanor Brownlee. Ho spoke of the quarrel which took place alter the Dixieland party, when Miss Brownlee brought Mareo home drunk. That in itself was an indication that there was nothing improper between them. A man did not bring home his mistress into the bosom of his family. When ho was allegedly murdering this woman, Mareo was drafting a letter to J. C. Williamson Limited asking them to take over the “Duchess of Danzig,” the play in which his wife had played a leading part. Thelma Mareo was essential to Mareo’s future projects, yet the jury was asjred to believe that he had murdered her. It might be suggested that Miss Brownlee was to take Mrs Marco’s place, but she was not an actress.

PURCHASE OF VERONAL. “To procure veronal Mareo went to chemists who knew him,” said Mr O’Leary. “He told detectives he was taking veronal and told others he was taking it. Are those the actions of a guilty man? Would he not have got rid of the stuff had he been guilty? All Mareo’s actions in regard to the veronal were frank and were certainly not those of a guilty man. “As soon as his wife had died he candidly admitted the possession of the veronal. He never hesitated. He thought that his wife’s condition was due to medicine he had given her, and he was not candid about that medicine, because ho thought he had committed an offence. I ask you to contrast bis actions over the corrective medicine and his action regarding the veronal. On the one hand he was candid, truthful and straightforward; on the other he was not.” ADDRESS FOR THE CROWN. Mr Meredith, in addressing the jury for the Crown, attacked the defence evidence. “I am going to put it to you,” said Mr Meredith, “that that evidence has no bearing, or practically none, on this case. The whole case now depends on careful consideration of the incidents from the Friday night to the Monday afternoon when Thelma Mareo died.” It was, said Mr Meredith, surprising that it was necessary to bring people from Australia to prove Mrs Mareo’s drinking habits. There should have been plenty of people in New Zealand and in Auckland who knew her intimately. The people who knew her in Australia and performed with her theresaid that they knew nothing of these accusations. Dr. Giescn, who was called for the defence, put up a most amazing proposition. Ho was a man who admittedly had studied the case from the outset and had advised the defence. He advised the defence that everyone was wrong, but he did not come to the last trial and give evidence, and it was only now that he got into the tiring line. Dr. Gieeeu’s theory was a contradiction of several reputable men w ho gave their exidenee with certainty and who were | supported by textbooks. Surely out of 1 the thousands of medical men in New Zeal, nd there must have been some who would have eome forward in the interests of justice to support Dr. Giesen. Mr Meredith had not finished when the Court adjourned.