MURDER ALLEGED

Southland Times, Issue 22010, 9 May 1933, Page 8

MURDER ALLEGED

TRIAL OF MAORI FARMER SHOT WHILE IN BED PLEA OF NOT GUILTY (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, May 8. The trial of Riwi Manuel, a Maori, aged 17, from the Kaitaia district on a charge of murdering Waiti Robson, commenced before Mr Justice Herdman in the Supreme Court. Manuel was charged with committing the crime on January 8 at Pukepoto, near Kaitaia. He is alleged to have shot Robson, who was his employer, while Robson was asleep in bed in the early hours of the morning. Robson died in hospital later. Manuel pleaded not guilty through an interpreter. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr V. R. S. Meredith, explained the circumstances of the murdered man’s household, stating that some of the children were Mrs Robson’s by a previous marriage. In one roorrl’there slept Robson and his wife and a year old baby. In another room there were two boys Henry and Marara, while a boy, Tawhai, and the accused slept in a shack at the back. Manuel was adopted as a boy and Robson was practically his guardian. There had been a little trouble between them, and on one or two occasions Robson had thrashed Manuel. On the morning of the tragedy, Manuel and another boy, Nathan, who was with him, returned home from Kaitaia about 12.30. The little boy, Henry, would say that he was awakened by hearing somebody walking in the dining room. He saw Manuel walking with what appeared to be a broom in his hand. He struck a match and looked into the bedroom. Then he blew the match out, put the broom to his shoulder and there was a bang. Henry saw a man running away down the path and heard his father- call out. Manuel ran in shortly afterwards. He had on a pair of .dungaree trousers and a black and red jersey. The man Henry saw in the house had on white trousers. He said Mrs Robson would say that at about daybreak she was awakened by her husband crying. She found blood on him, and he was in great pain. He had been woundted by a shot. The medical evidence was that the man was found in a serious condition, with a gaping wound, beside 13 small punctured wounds, which showed how the shot had spread. The shot must have been fired from the doorway. When questioned .Manuel said he had got a gun two or three weeks before, and he went on to say that he had gone into Kaiti Robson’s room and shot him in bed. He was immediately warned of the seriousness of his statement. He described in detail what had happened, and where he had left the gun. He could only have described the exact position in which the gun was found if he had put it there himself. After being again warned, Manuel gave a written statement.

Counsel gave notice that he objected to the admissibility of this statement. Mr Meredith said that according to ■ the statement Manuel had been very annoyed with Robson. He got up and took a gun and shot Robson from the door of his room. “I did not intend to kill him,” Manuel said. “I wanted to hurt him, because he had given me a hiding.” Manuel had passed only Standard 3, and both his parents were dead.

The case was adjourned until tomorrow.