CHARGE OF MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20842, 8 April 1931, Page 10

CHARGE OF MURDER.

TWO MEN ACCOSED. TIMARU MOTOR-CAR INCIDENT. EVIDENCE GIVEN AT INQUEST. [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION. ] TIMARU. Tuesday. A charge of murder was preferred against John Henry Fitzgerald find Thomas James Cox, following an inquest today concerning the death of Robert Galvin Rahilly Nisbett, aged 26, who died in the Timaru Public Hospital yesterday as the result of an alleged assault with robbery in a motor-car, in Conoor Road on Saturday afternoon. Accused were remanded to appear at the Magistrate s Court, on April 15. Evidence was given at (ho inquest, which was held before a justice of tlio peace and a jury of six, to the effect that deceased had been seen struggling with another man in a car coining down a hill in Conoor Road.

According to tlio depositions of two boys, aged 12 and 11 years respectively-, deceased was seen endeavouring to got out of the car, which was travelling at a fast speed. Fitzgerald, it was alleged, was holding him from behind. He apparently fell, and the wheel of the car passed over his left thigh. When Constable W. Devine arrived on the scene, there was no sign of Fitzgerald or Cox, whose car was subsequently found further down the road, round a corner. Fitzgerald, it was alleged, mado a bid to escape, and was arrested after a grim struggle.

In his dying depositions, taken on Sunday evening at the Public Hospital, Nisbett said he was struck twice on the jaw by Fitzgerald, but to-day Dr, King and Dr. McKenzio said they did not notice cuts or bruises on deceased's face. They stated to Inspector A. S. Bird, who handled the case for the police, that Llicy had not looked for signs of assault.

The jury at the inquest, after a short retirement, returned a verdict that deceased died from loss of blood and shock caused by a motor-car accident in Conoor Road.