NAIRN STREET TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2892, 3 October 1916, Page 11

NAIRN STREET TRAGEDY

t ■ I ERNEST DEVOID ON TRIAL 1 —- | CHARGE OF MURDER I ■ ' i Ernest Charles Jewell Devoin ap I peare'd in the Supremo Court yestcr § day before Mr. Justice Chapman I charged with the murder of Louis; I White.on May 14. i When" asked to. plead accused said ef "I tried to kill myself. I did no' | fire at her because I loved her." •c His Honour: You aro asked to plea; I guilty or not guilty. I The accused repeated the above state J ment, and His Honour said: "I wil | treat your answer as a refusal to plead '$ and will ordor a plea of not. guilty ti | he 'entered. | Mr. V. R. Meredith, of the Crowi | Law Ofßeo, appeared for the prosecu is tion, and Mr. T. M. Wilford repre | souted accused. The jury empanel | led consisted of the following :—Alfrei | George Osborne (foreman), Leonan » Allen, Con Sullivan, Alfred Nowman I William Booth, Charles Culshaw, Al Ibert Stylos, Richard Cheer,'. .6©org Charman, Denis Sullivan, Georg Muir, Timothy Tracey. case for the Crown, Mr. Meredith, in opening tho cas for the Crown, said that the unforttin ate woman Louisa White was'shot ii tho Nairn Street Reserve on March 27 aj Somewhere about two years ago accus | ed became acquainted with Louis: M White, and won her affections. The; Ibecame engaged, :and were engage! for about two years., While engage* to Louisa Whito ( tho accused morriei another woman m Auckland in Octo ber, 1914, but Miss White and. he people were not aware of that. • Mrs 'Devoin was in Wellington about ': month before tho tragedy. Devon had separated from his wife, but wen with her to a registry office' to sa< that he had no objection to her takinj a situation. Tho shooting took placi on a Monday, and the marriage of De voin to Louisa Whito had been fixe< for tho Thursday following; Thi papers for the marriage were made ou by Miss "White, with the assistance o the accused. At this time Devoin tol< Miss White and her parents that hi was a hairdresser at Foxton, wliih as a matter of fact he had no businesi at all at Foxton, but had been -i waiter or cook at a flaxmill. . Whil< the marriage was being discussed-, thi question of looking after the hairdrcss er's shop at Foxton, while Devoin wa: in Wellington to be married, and on hif honeymoon cropped up, and ii was finally.arranged thai Mr. Skinnei (Miss White's step-father) should gc up to Foxton and look after the shop gj It was arranged that Devoin shoulc I meet Mr. Skinner in Palmcrston North I but failed to do so. Ho sent a tele k gram from Woodvillo instead, to saj | that lie would .see him the following g day. Ho failed in this also and camt |, down to Welh'ngton via the Waira- | rapa, reaching Wollngton on the morn- <| ng of tho day that tho shooting tools S place. Devoin called at Miss White'f ■i home, m Devon Street, in the after- | noon, but thero was no oho home; ht I called in the evening, and took the un- | fortunate girl out. Then the shoot S ing occurred. The shots wero hearc | by residents in the neighbourhood, J. After the first shot a scream was 1 heard, and a second shot-was heard imf • mediately. Miss White was shot ir 5 tho hack, the bullet lodging in the s y )ina ! column, and paralysing her. i Devoin shot himself in the head, th< a bullet lodging in what is known as the a silont portion of the brain. well, of the Wellington Gas Company, who was the first to reach th( scene," saw Louisa Whito lying at' the ■ foot of a big tree, and Devoin on his back about eight or ten feet away dowr hill, with a revolver near his outstretched hand. Devoin was unconscious,., and there was a bullet wound in. the right tomple. The revolvei found had five chambors, and had thre< ',- live cartridges and two spent ones ■ Louisa Whito lingered in the Hospi- - tat for a while, and died on May 14. • The evidence called in support of the • case for the Crown was similar to thai I given in tho Lower Court, which has ■ already been-published rather fully. ' Tho testimony of Dr. Gilmer, who made i tho post-mortem examination, was to the effect that death Was due to the i bullet destroying the spinal cord and tho consequent, wasting. Tho. depositions of Louisa White, taken the morning after her admission to tho Hospital, were read, i Mr. Wilford did not call any witnesses for tho defence. - Addressing the jury, Mr. Wilford said this was a caso based on circumstantial' evidenco, backed up, perhaps, by a small amount of direct proof. Proof should be absolute, certain, and conclusive. A man might deceive a woman without wishing to commit murder. Devoin was married—unhappily married—and "he was doing Louisa White a cruel wrong •in hot telling her. But he was 'infatuatcd with her. Bather than commit bigamy and wrong the girl, it was reasonablo to assume that he would prefer to.commit suicide, lire at himself, and miss, and the bullet strike the girl-in the back. Devoin attempted to kill himself, not to kill the woman. His Honour Sums Up. His Honour's summing up' was brief. Ho said that all the ordinary motives that inspired men to commit ..murder were not here. It was circumstantial evidence that tho shot fired was fired by accused. The necossary evidence was beforo tho jury, and it was for thorn to consider.whether a crime had been committed.' When a person was on trial for murder it was quite competent for tho jury to take all the circumstances into consideration, and bring in a. verdict of manslaughter, even although it had not been urged by tho defence. First of all, tho important fact to .determine was whether the shooting was an accident, and if the jury came to the conclusion that the woman was shot by accident thero would be an end to the case. If a man tried to kill himself ho was •doing an unlawful thing, and if in doing so he shot another person it was not a pure accident. Ho would not say it amounted to murder; it foil under the definition of culpably killing. Was the accused contemplating suicide, or moro than suicide, or was he contemplating putting an end" to himself and the girl, so that nobody elso could liavo hen? If tho man intended deliberate murder, he carried a revolver'in his pocket, and if it were a case of suicide, as the prisoner talked of as "being the only alternative, than ho had the pistol. The actual facts wore confined witliin narrow limits. 'According to defendant, he was trying to kill himself. Did he • designedly kill her first, and shoot himself afterwards? _ The great question was—was it an accident, or was it a crime? Was tho accused guilty or not guilty of murder? If not, was the accused guilty or not guilty of a crime? The verdict: Mansiaughtor. Tho jury wero ont for about four hoitrs considering their decision, and returned a verdict of manslaughter, with a recommendation that accused receive tho maximum penalty. •■Mr. Wilford asked for postponement of sentence, as ho wished to bring some i evidenco as regards the prison- | er's mental condition. • His Honour said it was not in tho pnblio interest not to pass sontenco, but on Mr. Wilford'a urgent request. His Honour deferred sontenco until -10 a.m. on, Wednesday,. . .. ■~ (1 His Honour 'thanked the jury for , their attention to tho case.