SENTENCED TO DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 9

SENTENCED TO DEATH.

AN INTENT TO MURDER.

NURSE STRUCK BY BULLET*

A young man, Horace Lynton Prott, a telegraph linesman, was recently tried in Sydney on a charge of feloniously wounding Mona Hazel Olive Grunsell, a probationary nurse at the Kiama Hospital, on October 22, with intent to murder her. He was found guilty and senti-nced to; deajh. Counsel for the Crown «iid that the crime had b'een actuated by jealousy. The parties had been on good terms until the night before the shooting took place. On that night, when Miss Grunsell told Prott that she purposed going to a dance with someone else, he smacked her on the face. The following afternoon, while she was in the laundry at the hospital, the accused .appeared, and shot her. Mona Grunsell, in her evidence relating to the scene in the hospital laundry, said that Prott seized her .by one of her shoulders and placed a revolver close to her face. The weapon was about 2in. from her head, when she heard a click, and a bullet struck her near the ear. When she looked up, she saw the accused with the revolver pointed at his own bead. He fired three shots at himself. The first blew his hat- off, tho second went in one sido oi the temple, and at the third shot he fell,, bleeding profusely. In cross-examination Miss Gxmnsell said that her attitude toward the accused now was not hostile. She despised aim as a coward. In a statement from the dock, the accused, who is 30 years of age, declared his innocence, and said that the whole thing was an accident. Ho did not know the weapon was loaded when he took it to the hospital. Prott was convicted, with a very strong recommendation to mercy. The Judge, addressing the prisoner, said: "People must learn to control their feelings, and those who use deadly weapons and inflict serious injuries, such as in this case, must abide by the consequences. You are a fortunate man in that you did not have the death of this young woman on your hands. It was not your fault that you did not commit a much greater offence. I have no option in this matter but to direct that the death sentence be recorded. The jury has recommended you to mercy, and that recommendation will be forwarded to the proper authority."