FOUND GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER

Southland Times, Issue 25279, 4 February 1944, Page 4

FOUND GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER

AMERICAN MERCHANT SEAMAN

(PA..) WELLINGTON, Feb. 3. A verdict of manslaughter was returned by the jury in the Supreme Court in Wellington today against Reginald Delone Surles, aged 26, an American merchant seaman, who was charged with murdering Robert Lane, a negro seaman, aboard a ship in Wellington on December 3. Mr G. C. Kent represented the accused, who was remanded for sentence.

Evidence showed that four seamen, including Surles and Lane, were drinking in the afternoon and with visitors consumed five or six bottles of whisky and some beer. The two principals quarrelled. Lane knocked down Surles and stamped a heel in one of his eyes more than once. Surles was taken to the hospital for out-patient treatment. Early next morning Surles stabbed Lane while the latter was asleep aboard the ship. Mr Kent raised pleas of intoxication and provocation. Summing up, the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, said it had been correctly admitted that there could not be an entire acquittal. Surles was either guilty of murder or manslaughter. There was no question of insanity or accident. As for self-defence, that might have been raised had Surles used the knife when Lane knocked him down and stamped on his face. However, Surles did not use the knife on Lane till some hours later, when the latter was asleep. The jury was out for 50 minutes.