MAORI YOUTH ON TRIAL

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 239, 10 May 1933, Page 3

MAORI YOUTH ON TRIAL

- Kaitai Murder Case Press Association. —Copyright. Auckland, May 9. The trial has not yet finished of Riwi Manuel, 17-year-old Kaitaia Maori, on a charge of murdering Kati Robson on January 8 at Pukepoto. The hearing was continued to-night, but sixteen more Crown witnesses are to be heard. Manuel 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 has pleaded not guilty through an interpreter. Robson’s wife said Manuel had been living with them two years, milking cows and doing other farm work. There had been quarrels between Manuel and her husband and her husband twice had given the boy hidings, the first for coming home drunk and the second, about five days before the shooting, for throwing a stone at a child. Mrs. Robson was awakened about six o’clock in the morning by a scream from her husband, who said his stomach was bursting. She saw blood and then helped him on to the floor. She heard Manuel in the kitchen and called him to help. He was wearing dungarees and a white shirt. The gun produced in court belonged to her husband and was kept under the bed.