TRIAL FOR MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 8 March 1927, Page 1

TRIAL FOR MURDER

OPOTIIvt TRAGEDY. [BY TEIOoRAPH PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.) GISBORNE, March V. The recent tragedy near Opotiki was investigated at the Supreme Court today before Air Justice Ostler, when John Sullivan was charged with tne murder of Jeremiah Williamson on December Ist last, near Opotiki. After evidence had been given in regard to plans of the tragedy and the examination of human blood stains, Dr Forbes, of Opotiki, detailed the injuries to the victim, whose face was battered in. In reply to a question by Air Hodgson (counsel for accused) witness said lie thought a normally sane man would have desisted long before he battered a victim to the extent done in the case of Williamson.

Norman McKinnon, taxi driver, said he was engaged hy Sullivan and Williamson to drive them to Air Duncan Kerr’s property, where they expected, he judged from their remarks, to get work. Witness picked them up shortly after one o’clock, with their luggage, at the Royal Hotel, and bought two bottles of beer before setting out on the iourney. Both were “pretty drunk.” Sullivan had an empty ginger beer bottle in his pocket. On the way to Kerr’s, Sullivan talked a great deal. He answered rationally when witness spoke to him. Sullivan wanted to stop for a drink at One Point, hut witness would not. stop. When near Kerr’s gate, they met Kerr, who had aboard liis car two Afnori adults and a sick child. Both parties stopped, and hearing that the men had come to work for him. Kerr said lie had engaged thorn. He suggested that witness take the ATaoris into Opotiki Hospital, while he took the two men to Tnwat to camp. Sullivan and Williamson got. out and stood hy their swags on the roadside and Sullivan asked Kerr if they could sleep in his wool-shod. Kerr refused to allow this, in case it* affected his insurance on the wool clip stored there. Sullivan tried to hit Kerr, and witness told him not to. Sullivan then shook hands with Kerr, and then started to pull off his coat to make another attack on Kerr, who was turning away. Witness again stopped him. Williamson took no part in the argument, except that when Kerr explained why they could not sleep in his woolshed, Williamson agreed that that was right. In consequence of Sullivan’s attitude, witness advised him to return home. Witness held Sullivan as the car was being turned, hut he broke free, and he ran up to Kerr's car on the driver’s side, and made a grab at Kerr. The latter pushed him away and he fell on the road. Witness later left Sullivan and Williamson on the road with their gear. This was about 3.1 b o’clock. Witness did not see the men again that day. but next day he went hack to where lie had left them. He found marks of a struggle, and bloodstains on bottles and sticks lying about.

In cross-examination, witness said Sullivan and Williamson had been drinking pretty steadily lor some days prior to the tragedy. Sullivan was “ lighting drunk.”

in answer to the judge, witness said Sullivan had enough intelligence to follow a conversation between witness and Kerr.

Duncan Kerr gave corroborative evidence in regard to meeting accused and the previous witness. He (witness) drove on. He locked the doors and windows of his woolshed, and then returned home about 1 p.m. Earlier in the clay two of witness’s men loTt about one p.m. to drive slioep co Ilawai, and returned to the station about four-thirty. While witness was talking to Herewini, a Maori, the hitter’s wife said: “There’s a drunken swagger chasing Ataggie in the gorge.” Herewini galloped off, witness following a few minutes later. At the spot where lie left Sullivan and Williamson, lie saw a hat hanging oil the manuka, and a swag and a sack on the roadway. He searched and called for the girl Maggie, but finding no trace of her, returned to where tlie swag was. Then he saw Williamson with blood smears on his cheek. Witness thought at first lie was alive. Witness searched for the girl, and as he reached the school paddock, he saw Herewini, AltDrake (school-master) and Sullivan sitting on the grass. As witness lode up, Sullivan, pointing to witness, said: “That’s the man who helped to kill my mate!” Witness did not reply. Sullivan approached witness, swinging a whisky bottle, and witness and the Maori left. Sullivan stayed on while Drake phoned for the police. While there. Sullivan seemed to have sobered up, compared with his condition when witness left Sullivan and A) illiamson earlier in the day. Witness went homo and got bandages, and, with tw-o .uaoris. returned to where A) illiamson was lying, fliey took him out of the manuka, and then realised that lie was dead. There was a mark on the roadway as though a body had been dragged into the manuka. Near the manuka were two heavy Rcwnrewn branches and broken bottles.

Henry Herewini. a Afnori hoy, said that when he and his smaller brother were riding on horseback from school, they saw a man whose hands were | covered in blood, on the roadside not far from Kerr’s gate. As witness was passing, (lie man called out: “Go quick, and ring up the nearest doctor!” There was no sign of any other man, but- further hack witness saw patches of blood and broken bottles. In reply to the judge, witness said be could not recognise the man he sawon the road. Maggie Herewini. a schoolgirl, said that coming home irom school with, another girl, they saw Sullivan, who asked whose car was stuck down the road. Witness said it must be one of Flenning’s. Sullivan asked how “far it

was to France’s place, but witness

couldn’t tell him. There was blood on Sullivan’s hand, and he asked witness for her dress to tie his hands up. Then he grabbed witness by the shoulder, hut she slipped away, though her dress was torn down from the shoulder. AVitness and her companion ran away. Sullivan ran after witness calling: “ I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” But he could not catch witness. The Court adjourned at this stage till to-morrow.