THE TE AROHA MURDER. Trial of Procoffi.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1372, 16 April 1881, Page 2

THE TE AROHA MURDER. Trial of Procoffi.

SUPREME COURT, AUCKLAND. Monday. (Before His Honor Mr Justice Richmond and a Common Jury.) John Procoffi, a native of Odessa* was arraigned upon an indictment chafing him with the wilful murder of Himiona Hira, an aboriginal native, on the night of the 10th" of February, »t Te jJrohii,Upper Thames. , Mr Brookn>ld. and Mr 'Thepphilua Cooper prosecuted on behalf of the Crown, and the prisoner was defended by. Mr N. Brassey. Mark Nesterkof (a Russian), and Thomas Pudan (an. Englishman), wer« sworn in as interpreters. ' ' Plans of the locality where the murdor was committed were handed in. Mr Brookfteld opened the case, but his address has already been published in these columns. The following evidence was then taken : — Sergeant Mulville proved the finding of the body in the state described. The prisoner's face was bruised. Prisoner said he had been drunk. Witaess asked him how he required to wash his clothea during the night. The prisoner said his clothes were wet from the dew. Sergeant Mulville was cross-examined by Mr Braßsey at considerable length. Witness was cross-examined as to his cautioning the prisoner and the answers given by the prisoner, and how he remembered so many things now which were omitted from his evidence at the Thames. His answer was that he was not asked. Mr Brookfield pointed out that according to the depositions, all this was brought oufe in evidence in the Court below. He had given full evidence at the inquest. Witness was questioned as to the sores on the back of the prisoner's hands when he was arrested, and said some were old and some new. He was examined as to the evidence given at the inquest. He searched the raupo and whare while the inquest was going on, but not very minutely;but prior to his search he knew nothing of John Moore saying he heard fumbling about the whare. He had seen deceased once. He could not say that he was a more muscular man than prisoner. There had been, a good deal of drinking in the township that night after the races. Prisoner spoke to witness at the tent about releasing Smallmah fr6m custody— not about releasing Smallmans horse. He was then by himself. He came again a second time. Witness thought he was sober. Witness directed Constable Hogan to put him away, thinking that he was becoming a nuisance. Re-examined : When prisoner came to bail out Smallman he spoke in English, and understood witness. ' ' . • < Nicholas Cleary, constable, stationed at Te Aroha, gave evidence generally corroborative of that given by the previous witness. He identified Procbffi's hut 1 on the plan in evidence. On making a search he found clothes hanging on the framework of the hufc — a dungaree coat and trousers, and checked Bhirt. They were then wet all over. This was about halfpast eight in the morning. He examined them, and saw stains which he took to bp blood on the trousers and coat or jumper. He produced the articles. The stains of blood seemed to be most on the trousers, on the front, from the hip to the kneo on the right leg. The jumper was stained on the back. There were also stains' on the front of the jumper. A 1 piece warfcUt out from the trousers, leX by; the medical gentleman. Witness went to the Sunbeam claim, beyond the Hot Springs reserve, and found the prisoner tnere. He was sitting outside the drive. Witness charged him with murdering the Maori, and he said he knew nothing about it. He answered in English, and muttered something which wituo.-*8 dW not understand, and witness cautioned him. He made no statem nt. Witness searched him and found tho pocket-knife produced. Prisoner hung his he^id down. Witness examined the knife and noticed infiide the handle what ho thought to be congealed blood. The.blade of the knife was moderately sharp. Prisoner had a black eye, the bridge of his nose was, bruised, he was scratched in front and at the back of his ears, and on the forehead. He saw prisjner at 5 minutes past 10 On the previous night opposite the British Hotel. He had none of these bruises then. Had he had them, witness mustj he believed, have seen them. About 9 o'clock he saw deceased and prisoner. There was then some dispute about Smallmans horde, which a man named Catran was riding about. Witness got it for the deceased who rode it away. Himiona was with prisoner at 5 minutes past 10. There was then a dispute between them as to which should go back to Smallmans for tho horse, and they went in the direction of Paeroa toad. Prisoner, at the time of his arrest, was dressed in clothes similar to those produced. He was not drunk, but appeared to have been drinking. Cross-examined : He searched the whare after he got the clothes (produced). He searched the floor, and pulled two bags from the inside of the roof, but did not search tho whole of it. The roof came right down to the ground. He would not swear that the clothing produced was the clothing worn by the prisoner on the night prerious to his arrest. Carl Jortzen Rasmussen, a miner, examined by Mr. Cooper, deposed that he lived close to the prisoner's whare, and he often saw him. He always saw him in a dungaree jumper and pants. He had two different suits of the same material. Cross-examined: Ho could not swear to either of the suits before the Court, but they were similar to those usually worn by the prisoner. William r Hytb, examined, said he lived in Te Aroha in February, and recollected on the morning of the 11th ! hearing of the Maori being found dead. On the previous evening he saw the prisoner at about a quarter past 10 o'clock in O'Halloran's Hotel. He was then dressed in a dungaree suit, and the socks turned over the trousers. There were some Maoris with him. Witness also deposed to hearing a strange noise in the night, as though some one was getting beaten, but thinking it was caused by the natives he took no notice of it.

TUESDAY. Sergt. "Major O'Grady gave evidence as to finding blood on the prisoner's clothing, boots, and in his knife, and op a stone found near the body. Dr. Huxtable sworn, said he went to Te Aroha to make the post mortem examination of .the body. Thfr throat was cut from ear to ear. There were bruises on the left wrist and on tKe -right arm. There was also a bruise on the right side of the chest, and two large bruises on the forehead; each one just over the eyebrow, The body was completely drained of blood. The wound m the throat must have been caused by more than me out, because it had" a triangular flap^of akin hanging over at each extremity. Witness believed that the Maori was attacked With the stone, which would cause the bruises. ' ' When witness first saw the Clothes' they were damp. Witness examined the stains in the clothes, first withaldjW magnifying glass, afterwards with a microscope, and' then applied the ordinary 1 chemical tests. They ' were afterwar.ds,sxamined with a microscope. The 'stares' were stains of blood. The blood ifr'a's that of a mammal. He could not swear that it was the blood of a hum»fli being, because there we certain

animals (the hare, the rabbit, and dog) whose blood could be, with difficulty, distinguished from human blood, even when the, stains were recent. Witness examined the boqts. The stains appeared to be blood stains. He examined the prisoner's nostrils, which showed a retent'scratch inside. There was a stain under the nail of one of the finger?* Examined the knife. There was coagulum in the space for the blade. The clothes and the knife had a sickly sour smell such as decomposing blood would have. Witness also examined the clothes, &c., with Dr. Kilgour, and both made a joint report for the police. The witness also produced pieces of hair which were found adhering to the dead man's fingers. He applied to the hair first a low magnifying power, and afterwards observed it under the microscope It did not resemble the Maori's hair. The police had given him the means of making the comparison. There was no correspondence between the hair cut from the body of the Maori and that found adhering to his fingers after death— no resemblance at all. There was a strong resemblance between the hair found sticking to the dead man's knuckles and that cut from the prisoner's beard. He thought that the resemblance was strongest in the hair cut from the prisoner's moustache. The result of the first examination was confirmed by the examination under the microscope. He considered that the bruises with the stone were caused before the throat was cut. The bruises on the arms and chest would disable a man, and the bruises on the forehead would stun him. Dr. Kilgour gave corroborative evidence. John Bergen and James White deposed to seeing the prisoner and the murdered man together on the night of the murder, and to afterwards hearing yells coming from the spot where the body was found. James Cook gave similar evidence. In cross-examination he said that when accused went to work in the drive he skinned his knuckles and had sores on his hand ; it might have been on both hands. When witness was talking to accused on the night of the 10th, at halfpast 9 o'clock, accused was half drunk. In the early part of the afternoon he saw Smallman, Himiona, and accused together. After dark he saw accused at the door of the Hot Springs Hotel. Witness could not tell in whose company prisoner was at the time. George Lipsey deposed to hearing the prisoner and Himiona quarrelling on the afternoon of the 10th. He saw the native the same night about 10 o'clock near O'Halloran's. John Meagher gave similar evidence. The prisoner was on the racecourse on the 9th, in company with the Maoris. He appeared to be half drunk. Wiiliam Baker also heard the quarrelling. He heard the prisoner threaten to cut the native's throat. Wednesday. John Moore, who lived with the accused, gave evidence as to waking between 11 and 12 o'clock and seeing the prisoner fumbling in the raupo thatch. He also deposed that he had been washing his clothes. The ring produced was the prisoner's. Hone Wera Muru deposed that the prisoner and the murdered man Were wrestling on the racecourse on the 9th, and that Procoffi was thrown. He seemed angry, and said something to the effect that if they were playing with knives he would beat the native. He saw Himiona and the accused together near O'Halloran's, after 10 o'clock on the night of the 10th. Kingi Hara, brother of Himiona, deposed that the ring found in the prisoner's purse was very like one worn by the deceased. Two witnesses, named Hinton and Moore, deposed to finding the rings (produced) in the ashes of Procoffi's whare, which was burned down on the 22nd February. Two natives identified the rings as the property of Himiona. Mr Brassey opened his defence at 6 o'clock. He said he would be able to prove that at the time when, according to the prosecution, the murder took place (11 o'clock), the prisoner was near the tent of a man named Taylor. After speaking at some length, he called Daniel McCarthy, who said he came to New Zealand in the same ship with the prisoner, who was one of the seamen on board. The prisoner made himself very useful on board. He was constantly washing clothes. He appeared to be a very quiet man. It was not a remarkable circumstance that the prisoner should have washed his clothes in the middle of the night. Hugh Taylor said he was a butcher, and had been "killing" at some distance from his house during the course of the day. He returned home, and had his supper about 10 o'clock on the evening of the 10th. He went to O'Halloran's after supper to try and get a drink. He could not get one. He went to Clotworthy's, and they would not open the door. He went back towards O'Halloran's. Just as witness was going home to bed he saw the prisoner. Procoffi said, "Do you know b Jack?" Procoffi was very drunk, and said so. Procoffi also said he had been wrestling all day, and wanted to "shout" for witness. Prisoner had no vest on— only his shirt and trousers on. He had not on at this time a dungaree suit or a blue suit, as had been sworn to by other witnesses. Procoffi's face was disfigured at the time. Next morning picked up a tweed vest, which witness knew belonged to the prisoner. — In cross-examination, witness could not state exactly what time it occupied him to go from O'Halloran's to Clotworthy's, and from Clotworthy's back to O'Halloran's.