MURDER CHARGE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 392, 29 November 1932, Page 5

MURDER CHARGE

(Press Assn.-

CROWN CASE CONCLUDES WITH DETECTIVES' EVIDENCE ACCUSED'S DENIAL

— By Telegraph — Copyrlght)

Blenheim, Monday. The trial of Edward Tarrant, who is charged with the murder, at Picton on November 3, 1931, of James Flood an old man entered on its sixth day with the examination of • Detective Jarrold, who said he asked accused where hei got the notes. Accused replied that he had been saving them for years. He had received the notes when he cashed the cheques received from firms for wood supplied. The money was hidden in ia chocolate hox under the kitchen fioor of his house. That accounted for the stains and the dampness. After further examination, by Inspector Ward, accused said he found the money in a wallet under a hedge hetween the croquet lawn and Miss Williams' house. This was shortly after Christmas. The wallet contained about £310. He thought, after he spent some of it, that it might be Flood's money, and got frightened, and so made false statements to the police. When, accused was told that he would he charged with the murder he saict, "I didn't do it." CaSe For Crown Closed Cross-examined, witness said no bloodstains had been found on the exhibits taken from accused's honse. Witness put in :a, statement hy Leonard Tarrant to the effect that on the night of November 3 he attended a boys' club meeting at the Sunday school, and was in the room till 9 p.m. or 9.30 p,m., when Bunt told him that his father wanted him, and he assisted his father to paddock a horse in a paddock near the school, and then they walked home together. Suh-Inspector Ward's evidence was corroborative of that of the previous witness in regard to the examination of accused just prior to his arrest. When asked if he had any more money accused said, "I have no more." Witness searched the overcoat of accused and found 20 pound notes in the lining, rolled • up in a small bundle. Accused said, "That's the last of them." This concluded the case for the Crown. "Cold Blooded Murder" When the Crown's case concluded, Mr. Evan Parry, counsel for accused, announced that it was not proposed to call evidence for the def ence. Mr. P. S. K- Macassey, Crown Prosecutor, then addressed the jury. He referred to the crime as a deliberatq cold-biooded murder. He reviewed alj the. evidence in detail and submitted that accused fitted all details of the murder. He was in the vicinity of the old man's cottage at the time, and knew of his wallet. He was desperately in need of money and used the axe in an expert fashion. The story of his movements on the night of the murder had heen proved incorrect in essentials. From March to Jupe after the, murder, he spent £210 in notes in Blenheim. ' - In regard to the story of finding the wallgt under the hedge, if it was there before Christmas, it was there on November 11, when an exhaustive seareh hy detectives failed to discover it. The Crown submitted . that accused's story was impossihle. , Mr. Parry addressed . to jury at great, length- He said that there • was no evidence that an axe had been usec^rHjlu^nurder^jmdji^ijj^^l^

later, story .regardipg tlie .finding of the wallet was;suhsta.p,tially krue. , The only real eyidepce was. tjie po^^ession .of notes, and the, dqf e^qe .wd^ that Tarrant was. physi.eally . innocent of the uaurd.ejr,. ,?uad th.e , story of his finrii-np* ETip nof.ps.wfls