Dramatic Finale To Suitcase Murder Trial

Northern Advocate, 23 July 1938, Page 6

Dramatic Finale To Suitcase Murder Trial

[Special to “Northern Advocate.”} WELLINGTON, This Day. The court was crowded yesterday afternoon when the jury returned with a verdict of guilty of manslaughter in the case of Douglas Alexander Armstrong. aged 21 years, charged with murdering his father, Edwin Norman Armstrong, at Wellington, on May G The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, imposed a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment. Jury’s Verdict. When the jury returned yesterday afternoon, there was a brief wait for His Honour. The Registrar then asked: Gentlemen of the jury, are you agreed upon your verdict? The foreman: We are. The Registrar: And how saj' - you, guilty or not guilty? The foreman; Guilty of manslaughter. The Registrar: Prisoner at the bar, you have been found guilty on a charge of manslaughter. 1 Have you anything to say why sentence of the court should not be passed upon you 9 Counsel’s Appeal. "mThT^ theTaccused: The circumstances of this tragedy have been so detailed during the last few days, and the history of the family and the circumstances that led up to it have been so detailed that I do not feel I can offer any further information to Your Honour which may be of assistance in deciding what penalty you must impoge. I would like to say. from knowledge acquired by me in the course of the preparation of the case, and from personal contact with the prisoner, that I feel I am entitled to say there is in him a wealth of ability and of goodness. I can only ask that Your Honour will impose such a penalty that will not crush out all hopes for the future, but that will enable him. at some future time, to use the talents and ability that he undoubtedly has. Further than that, I can do nothing but commend him to the mercy of the court. Chief Justice Decides. His Honour, addressing the prisoner: The jury have taken a merciful view ■of your case, I can quite appreciate the way in which they arrived at their verdict. They no doubt felt, although we bad not. the circumstances of the case before us, and in the nature of things could not have had, except in the statement you made to the police, that you were subjected on the day of this tragedy, when you went back into the house about 9 o’clock, to a certain ! i amount. perhaps a considerable | amount, of provocation. ( “There arc certain facts, however— 1 I do not propose to go into them in j great detail—which cannot be over- j looked,” continued His Honour. “It is • impossible to overlook the feelings in your heart, which are obvious from I what you yourself said in your state-1 men! to the police, at the lime when 1 you went into the house. It is further I impossible to overlook the savage j ferocity of your onslaught upon the de- j ceased, who was, after all. vour father, i I “There must be passed upon you a ! substantial sentence, sufficient to show j that the sanctity of human life must j still be respected. The sentence of the! court is that you will be imprisoned! and kept to hard labour for ten years.” | Accused left the dock without com-i merit. The jury were excused from duty for | throe years.