DOUBLE MURDER CHARGE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 106, 17 February 1950, Page 5

DOUBLE MURDER CHARGE

MAN FOUND GUILTY JUDGE INSTRUCTS JURY ON PROVOCATION (P.A.) HAMILTON, February 16. A verdict of guilty on both counts was returned by the jury yesterday in the case in which Robert Heremia, aged 25, labourer, of Taumarunui, was charged with murdering Peter Tarawa and Ruth Hallett, also known as Ruth Heremia, on December 5, at the Taumarunui Pa.

1 The jury, after a retirement of four and a-half hours, added a strong recommendation to mercy because of the “extreme provocation the prisoner had suffered” Mr Justice Stanton sentenced the prisoner to imprisonment wi'.n hard labour for life. The Crown was represented by Mr J. F. Strang. Counsel for the accused was Mr Noel Smith. Detective-Sergeant W. H. Cromwell gave evidence that Heremia made a statement in which he said that he remonstrated with his wife and Tarawa for becoming fnendiy. He became reconciled to losing his wife, but during the evening of December 5 he boiied over, and he killed them both with an axe which he had obtained from the wood pile three chains from the meeting house. Tarawa and Ruth were in bed and he slept in the same room. Mr Strang said that there was absence of provocation. The accused had shown jealousy and a growing resentment against Tarawa and to lesser degree toward Ruth Heremia. The crime was the result of thought, contrivance, and design. I Mr Smith submitted that the case was one of manslaughter and not of murder, for there was evidence that the prisoner had received the gravest provocation. The provocation Heremia received had -so unhinged his mind that he was not responsible for his acts on the night of December 5. Ills Honour said that he had been unable to see that the circumstances leading' to the killing of the two people amounted to provocation. There was a deliberation about the acts of the accused that did not admit of this defence. His Honour said it was his duty to tell the jury that the law relating to provocation did not apply to (he present case, and he did not agree with counsel that a verdict of manslaughter would be a vindication of the law.