HAMILTON MURDER

Hokitika Guardian, 4 November 1931, Page 6

HAMILTON MURDER

SMITH ON TRIAL

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association)

HAMILTON, November 4

' The trial of Arthur Walter Smith, 50, charged with the alleged murder of his wife, Lois Alexandra Smith, 29 years, at their home Liverpool Street, Whitiara, on the night of October 3, opened before .Mjr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., at the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court to-day. The prisoner, who walked .into the Court without assistance was permitted to sit in the dock...

The. first witness was Dr A. J. Wad- ; ./dell, who stated he was called to the ■ scene of the tragedy by a girl giving the name of l’hylljs Smith, who told him her . father was spitting blood. Witness hurried to the house and was met on the footpath by Phyilis, He entered the house, and saw the prisoner at the bedroom door. He was in pyjamas and slippers. The pyjamas were covered 'with, blood, and he was wiping blood from hfs hands with a handkerchief. Witness then noticed Mrs Smith lying on the floor dead. Witness stated that /Smith pointed, tin his wife V-direction “She’s all right, she’s all fright.” Smith was bleeding from .the. ...throat and spitting blood. He bandaged Smith, te.iling Phyllis to ring for the ambulancq and the police. •• nep wit-, mess' returned to the bedroom the baby, was crying in a cot near accused’s bed. 'Witness again attended to Smith and •while doing so Smith said he had been ..working for about'seven weeks up north. He said he would not have his children disgraced by their mother having relations with other men. He said be saw his wife meet another man and go off with him in a bus. Witness described in detail the knife .wounds in the throat and on the body. The course of death was haemorrhage, due to the severance of the jugular vein. Constable V. Naylor produced photos of the room taken shortly after the fatality. , ' Constable Fraser who arrived at the scene of the tragedy shortly after m'dnight, said he met Dr Waddell at the gate. They saw Smith together in the kitchen. He was sitting on a stool holding his head between bis hands,. There wa.s 'blood all down the front of his pyjamas. His throat was bandaged. Witness assisted Smith to an ambulance. Prisoner _ at, .the.. time remained- “ She went too far,- she went too far,’’ There was no sign ,ef drink on accused who appeared calm. Witness the condition of the room and the body of Mrs'Smith lying at the foot of the. bed ori her right side, and her head in a pool of blood. .. , - Constable Fraser continuing said a blood stained knife was lying on a dressing table. There did not appear to be signs of a struggle. Witness found trousers on tlie ffoor in which was a letter 'in which the prisoner sa:d his wife came home shortly after 11 o'clock on the night pf the tragedy and would not answer him wheij, he asked if she would have supper. He had been told she had been out with another man. It- was too hard after all I have sacrificed for her, the letter concluded. Accompanying the letter was the pr'soner’s Jast will and testament written on a sheet of paper tin pencil. Smith in this bequeathed all his real and personal property and insurance moneys to h;s sister, to be held i 11.,, trust for the, children and to be used to settle the debts following his decease.