MURDER CHARGE

Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1929, Page 5

MURDER CHARGE

MRS BRAUMAN’S DEATH,

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, September 11

The Police Court was crowded this morning when William Henry Brauljmxi was ciiarged with murdering Anna t>ede Doroiiiy dean Brahman on August rtli.

Dr Lvans gave evidence that the cause oi tne woman’s deatn was a fractured skull and brain laceration caustu oy a guiis.iot wound, me also gave evidence .tuac Uie wounds inflicted by accused on himself had destroyed tile ieft eye. He stated accused was rational and composed when examined at the hospital and remarked that' the uuiiet went me wrong way.

Richard Henry Brauman, a son oi deceased, who lives at Nelson, gave evidence of. quarrels between accused and deceased, deposing that accused after his mother left the home a year ago had threatened that if she did not return, he’d do for her. In answer to White, the witness Brauman stated accused was obsessed with jealousy and became suspicious when deceased went out at night. This obsession was aggravated after they separated. Witness was frequently in deceased’s company and so tar as he knew there. .were no grounds for his father’s jealousy. ' ' Jack Osmond McMillan, aged 18, a warehouseman, said on August 7th, he was introduced to deceased and Olive Brauman by a friend and the four went for a ride. On returning to St. Clair, a man came up and stood in front of deceased, j Witness .heard a reference to having a good time and deceased remarked it had nothing t> do with him. Without warning accused produced a revolver and with swift action presented it at deceased’s “head and fired. She moaned and toppled over. Witness towards accused who warned him to keep back. Accused then fired at his own head, reeled twice and fell. Witness took the revolver from him and went down the embankment to. find the woman dead. ■>: - AV! . ./

Olive Dorothy Brauman said when leaving Invercargill, her* father threatened to go to Dunedin at Christmastime and shoot her mother. On the night of the shooting accused grabbed her mother’s arm saying: “You are having a good time.” He took out a revolver, placed it against her head and fired. Witness, saw her mother fail and go over the embankment. Witness heard another shot and later saw her father with a wound in the head.

Cross-examined,fitness* said the whole trouble was her 'father’s jealousy. ; His jealousy eventually became an obsession. '..