SERGEANT MAGUIRES DEATH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 836, 7 May 1910, Page 3

SERGEANT MAGUIRES DEATH.

POWELKA CHARGED WITH MURDER. At the Magisterate’s Court, Palmerston North, yesterday, Joseph John Powelka, was charged with the murder of Sergeant Maguire on the night of April 10. On the charge against him being read the prisoner gave a convulsive start. The evidence was to some extent a repetition of that given at the inquest on the deceased Sergeant. Other evidence was merely “ formal.” Sub-Inspector O’Donovan swore that Maguire was stationed at Palmerston North, and had arrived there on the night of April 8. On the night of April 10 he saw him on his being conveyed to the hospital in Dr. Wilson’s motor car, when he was in a state of collapse. The witness stated that he had taken possession of Detective Ouarterraain’s revolver on April 14, having procured the weapon from the detective’s coat, which was hanging in his bedroom in the Empire Hotel. Some time before the tenth he had seen a similar revolver in Quartermain’s possession. Doctor Martin, who attended Maguire shortly after his admission to the hospital at about 9 o’clock on the night of the encounter, stated that Maguire was suffering through having received a gunshot wound- The wounded man was suffering from shock, and he was at once prepared for an operation. Witness described the wound and the course of the bullet, as he did at the inquest on the late Sergeant Maguire. The witness testified that the bullet produced in the Court was the one he had extracted during the post mortem. He could not swear anything definite as to the relative positions of the man who was shot and the person who fired the shot. Erie Hampton, butcher, for whom Powelka once worked for five months, repeated his story of how on the nigbt of Saturday, April 9, he was going home and found that a wire had been stretched across the drive at his residence. He detailed how in consequence he laid in wait on Sunday night, saw a man enter his premises, ran for the police, and returned with Sergt. Maguire, Detective Siddells, Detective Quartermain, Constable Wilson and Constable Dunn. With Maguire and Quartermain he reentered the premises ; the others had been posted at various adjacent places. He had thought that the man who entered his grounds was Powelka because of his actions. Powelka had a habit of straightening himself up whenever he got a bump, and that was what the figure did when it landed over a fence on the opposite side of the road, prior to crossing over to his house. The man, he continued, was wearing a dark threequarter overcoat. The witness covered the incidents leading up to the struggle on his lawn and the discovery by Quartermain and himself of one man standing over another man, who was lying n the grass, the latter of whom proved to be Maguire. Detective Quartermain corroborated Hampton’s evidence. The revolver produced was the one used by witness when he fired at the man.

Sydney John Tisdall, gunsmith, gave expert evidence as to the revolvers and ammunition. The bullet produced was a 32 calibre and corresponded with the ammunition in the revolver produced, which was one of Powelka’s. Compared with the bullet extracted from the body the bullets were similar to those found in Powelka’s revolvers and in his possession. A number of other witnesses gave similar evidence to that given in the previous cases against prisoner.