CLOSING STAGES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19879, 4 March 1939, Page 7

CLOSING STAGES

MURDER CHARGE TRIAL

DEATH OF MAORI WOMAN

FOUR-POINT DEFENCE

ADDRESSES BY COUNSEI

The closing stages ot the trial of Rewi Kerehi, alias Dave Grace, aged 42, a three-quarter-caste Maori, on a charge of murder were reached this afternoon in the Supreme Court. The accused was appearing before Mr. Justice Northcroft on a charge of the murder of his wife, Matekino Grace, aged 32, at Tuparoa on December 10, 1938.

The Crown's case was conducted by Mr. F. Wrey Nolan, and Mr. A. A. Whitehead, with him Mr. J. de v. W. Blathwayt, appeared on behalf of the accused.

Addressing the jury, Mr. Nolan submitted that the charge had been proved. He explained the differences between murder and manslaughter.

Reviewing some of the evidence, he referred to Nehe Grace as an important witness who had told Of the alleged struggle in the meeting house and how he saw Mrs. Grace lying on the floor of the kitchen, with the prisoner standing near. Counsel suggested that the remarks of tha accused to Nehe in the kitchen were significant and did not suggest that hehad been peacefully standing beside his wife for the few minutes they were alone.

The little girl's evidence corroborated that of Nehe, said Mr. Nolan. She was the only person able to describe the condition of the unfortunate woman when she was brought back to the meeting Jiouse that night. Then she was naked and after being laid on the bare floor was dragged out to the varandah by her hair, where she was left for the night, in apparently an unconscious condition. Mr. Nolan said he thought the jury would be convinced that .the stories told by Nehe and the girl were true. The Crown's Submission "The inference the Crown wishes you to believe is that the woman was unmercifully kicked on the head and body, if not to cause, to contribute to the injuries from which she died," said Mr. Nolan. The unsworn statement of the accused, he submitted, was manifestly untrue in many important instances and there were material omissions. If the. woman had fallen down, the steps in the kitchen the husband would have been only too ready to tell the police of it. Mr. Nolan explained where the evidence differed from the statement made by the I accused. Even if Nehe and the accused 'had h'ad some drink that night it made no difference because, he submitted, the evidence of Nehe regarding the alleged assault, was borne out by the story of the young girL Case for the Defence The seriousness of the crime was explained to the jury by Mr. Whitehead. I!, was an extraordinary case, he said, because the man charged with the murder of his wife had apparently no motive, premeditation, or any- explanation in any shape or form for the commission of the crime. Ho submitted that if the Crown's evidence was all true it had fallen short of the burden that was east upon it. All that was proved was that on December 8 there was an assault, two strikings of the deceased woman by the prisoner, and a struggle on the floor of the meeting-house. The balance of the case was speculation

The defence was that the late Mrs. Grace died from natural causes, as as the result of an accident, or as the result of injuries received prior to December 8, Another possibility was that Grace never intended to kill his wife and at no time had any reason to believe that he thought the assault might result in her death. In the last-mentioned possibility the crime devolved into one of manslaughter. Counsel commented on the fact that Dr. P. P. Lynch's opinion was available as to the cause of death, but had not been asked at the lower court hearing. It was quite apparent that Dr. Grant had spent much time \ on the case, but one doctor was not always in agreement with another doctor on medical points. Mr. Whitehead dealt with the medical evidence at length, submitting how easy it was for medical men to disagree when discussing similar conditions. Dr. Grant had said that two of the injuries on the forehead and those on the nose and chin were of some days' duration. It was possible for those injuries to have started a haemorrhage; it was possible also that the clot in the right ventricle of the heart could I cause death.

Mr. Whitehead said that if the woman's condition was low when she was admitted to the hospital the doctor should have performed an operation. When he examined her first the doctor had said there could have been no compression on the brain, and counsel submitted that the doctor was making a wrong hypothesis. Criticism of the inferences made by the doctor as a result of his post mortem examination was made by Mr. Whitehead, who added that if a portionof the clot in the heart had disintegrated it might have found its way to the brain and caused death. Cause of Injuries

The woman undoubtedly had suffered certain injuries, some to the head and some to the body, before December 8, and those the jury were not entitled to ascribe to the prisoner, continued counsel. It was for the jury to decide if those injuries had contributed to the woman death. It would have been possible, he said, for the deceased to have fallen oil the steps leading to the store-room in the kitchen, causing the injury to her temple. She had not been under observation from the time she staggered out of ithe meeting house until the time she was seen by Nehe to belying on the floor of the kitchen. Some time before Mrs. Grace had been to the doctor about headaches and had been given a prescription. This might easily have been the commencement of serious organic trouble. (Proceeding.)