ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER AT THAMES

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 303, 29 September 1888, Page 6

ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER AT THAMES

Thames, Sept. 26, The hearing* of the charge a&airihb Maiy | Davis of abtempte 1 murder of her husband on /the 18th of August, .was continued yeSloday afternoon alter my report closed. Frank Goodman, a lad in the employ of Davit,, stated ho avjis t awoke by a row going on bctwoon accused and her husband. He heaid her fcay Davis brought) a knife from the cow-shed to kill her. Davis threatened to kill the lot of them as soon as lie got out of bed. lie saw accused coming from her bedroom to the ki chen, and she iold him to j^o for Mr Lloyd (a neighbour) and the do tor. Previous to this .she taid— "Uh, my God ! 1 thought I had killed him." He returned with Mr Lloyd, when he found Davis in his (witness's) bed, and Dr. Callan attending; him. Accused had told him that she had taken the tomahawk into her room that afternoon and left it on the window, which was just beside her bed. From the posiciou of net window and bed it would be impossible for Mis> Davia to '.reach it without getting out of bed. Aftei the doctor ariived, ho went into Mr& DaviVb bedioom and >-avv a tomahawk afc the loot of the bed on the lloor. He picked it up and gave ifc to Dr. Callan. He was usinjr the knife at 8 o clock that night cutting mangel wurtzel, and left it in the cow-shed. He next saw ib in Mrs Da vis's bedroom on the dressing table. He picked up the knife and gave it to Constable Stapleton. John Lloyd's evidence was to the (.fleet that on the night ot the 18th he whs called by two boys named God man and Kemp at about a quaitu to V2 o'clock to Davis's house, 150 yards, irom his place. ' He vent, at their request, to Davis's. hou^e, and enbeied by the back door, going into the kitchen. Mrs Davit, Minute Thaxter, and three children were there, all in their nightdresses. He spoke to Mrs Davis when he wet.t in, baying. "You have had another iow. ' She leplied, "He wanted to cut my thtoat with the knife, and I've killed him with an axe." He asked her where ho was, and f-he said in the front bcdioom. Theie weio two beds in the loom, one bedstead, and the other a shakedown on the floor. He saw Davis lying on the latter, but could not lecogni.'.c his features, as lie wiis covered with blood He was lying on his back, but inclining slightly on his left, and was covered up to the shoulders. He stooped clown and spoke to him " Davis," and he xeplied after a little time, " Who are you? what do you want ?" He did nob appear to know witness. He examined his head and found sevei-al wounde, there being one particularly over his ear. Witness was about to go for medical aid, when Minnie Thaxter met him in the kitchen and asked whether Davis was dead. He replied no, and told her he was going for the doctoi". She then asked whether there was any danger of Davis getting up ■ and doing them any injury. He said: "I don't think 'he will trouble you or any one else very much longer." 1 Mrs Davis then spoke, saying she hoped he would not recover, and remarked, " I knocked him down' with the axe." She al&o said that the life that man had led her for a long time was more than any woman could bear. It would be better to be out ot the world than to live the life she had lived. He went down to Dr. Callan's, and he ab' once weiit to Davis. During witness's absence the whole family had cleared from the house to the cowshed, upon hearing Davis get up and go from one room to the other. He could not see any evidence of a struggle having taken place in the room. Mrs Davis's bedclothes were turned down and seemed quite smooth. There were a table and other things but nothing was upset. Davis was lying in his natural position in the bed about 18 inches from the edge and his head was on the pillow. Witness did not think Mrs Divis was in her bed when she hit her husband. Dr. Callan deposed to finding 18 wounds on Davis's head and face as follows : Two lacerated wounds on tho right face threequarters inch and one inch respectively in length, with fracture of tho molar bone ; a lacerated wound three quarters of an inch on the forehead over the right eye, and two lacerated wounds over the right temple one inch and three-quarters inch respectively ; fracture of the outer plate of the bone, a lacerated wound on the upper and rig;ht aspect of the head, three-quarters of an inch'; a lacerated wound a little behind the former, one inch^ implicating the outer plate of the bone ; a lacerated wound over right ear, one inch, implicating the outer plate of the bone ; a lacerated wound on the right side of the head, angular, 1^ inch, with depressed fracture of the skull ; a lacerated wound behind the right ear, one inch ; two lacerated wounds on back and right aspect of head, three inch and two and a-half inch ; respectively ; two wounds on back and left aspect of the head, one inch each ; a laeei'ated wound on left side of head, a quarter inch ; an incised wound over left temple downwards and backwards, two and a quarter inches, penetrating the outer plate of bone; an incised wound on left cheek downwards and backwards from the outer angle of the eye, one and a half inches cutting through the molar bone. He did nob think ib possible that some of the wounds could have been inflicted unless the person receiving them was lying; down. Accused had stated that she had struck her husband in self-defence, and that he had drawn a kuife across her breast and thrust it into the mattress. Witness examined the mattress, bub could nob find any niark of a knife in the bedding. Constable Stapleton also gave evidence, after which The Resident Magistrate adjourned the case until Monday next. .Accused* was admitted to bail.