Son tells of talk of murder by accused

Helen Elizabeth Milner’s son says he found her one night crushing up powder after she had spoken repeatedly of wanting to “get rid” of her husband and talked about ways she could do it.

Adam Francis Kearns told the sixth day of Milner’s trial that she had spoken of putting crushed glass in the mashed potatoes or poisoning him with drugs, Phenergan, or sleeping pills.

“I laughed it off, along with everyone else,” said Mr Kearns, aged 22, the son of Milner from an earlier marriage.

Milner, 50, is charged with the attempted murder of her husband Phillip James Nisbet in April 2009, and his murder a month later when the Crown alleges she gave him the anti-allergy and sedative Phenergan in his evening meal, and then suffocated him while he lay sedated in bed.

She has denied the charges at her trial before Justice David Gendall and a jury in the High Court at Christchurch. The defence says Mr Nisbet’s death was suicide.

Mr Kearns said he lived at home for various periods before the time of Mr Nisbet’s death.

He said he was hoping to get a home detention sentence at the address in Halswell, with his mother and stepfather, because he needed a stable address and support around him.

He said the situation at the home was “unnormal – things weren’t right”.

“She said she had had enough and she wanted to deal with him. ‘Get rid of him’, was what she said.

“I laughed it off, along with everyone else. I didn’t think my mother would be capable of that.”

It started off subtly but she mentioned it repeatedly and gave more detail about how she wanted to do it, he said. She discussed putting crushed glass in the mashed potatoes, or poisoning him.

One evening, he got up and found her in the kitchen with powder ground up and some empty capsules, while her husband was in bed. Milner looked shocked and guilty to see him.

He asked her what she was doing, and she said she was not going to do it. He recalled the powder had a bluey-white tinge to it.

There was a heated argument. Mr Kearns said she was sick in the head and “not my mother anymore”. He called her a murderer. He said he would be moving out next day.

Milner became upset, in tears, and begged forgiveness.

Mr Kearns said he could not bring himself to go to the police but he tried to tell Mr Nisbet about it. He also laughed it off.

Mr Kearns read off records before the court to show an angry and threatening exchange of texts that followed Mr Nisbet’s death.

Milner texted: “I promise I did not do it. I could not live with myself if I did.”

She said there had been four pill packets in his drawer, but he texted back: “You tried it before.”

He texted Milner: “I want to see the suicide note before I believe it was him.”

He told the trial that Milner had sworn on the life of his unborn son that she had not done it.

He accused her of going back on a promise she had made to Mr Nisbet’s son and texted her, “All you care about is money.”

After another angry exchange, he texted Milner: “Bring it on murderer.”

“I’m going to make a statement against you now,” he told her. He let her know he would show the police her texts.

“Cool. Go make an idiot of yourself,” she replied. “Have you heard of blackmail?”

Mr Kearns replied: “Have you heard of murder?”

He spoke of her promising $20,000 if anything happened to Mr Nisbet. “It was money she had offered my brother and other people to make something happen.” That was several weeks before the death.

Cross-examined, Mr Kearns denied that had constantly made demands on the household, for money, and that he had reacted with aggression and anger whenever he did not get his own way. He acknowledged that he was sometimes dependent on his mother for money, which was potentially spent on drugs.

He told defence counsel Margaret Sewell: “I liked Phil Nisbet, hence why I am sitting here today to bring him justice, thank you.”

He agreed that within a year of Mr Nisbet and Milner getting together, he had acted with aggression and anger towards Mr Nisbet and had assaulted him.

He had done this because his mother – he described Milner as manipulative – had claimed she had been assaulted. “I had no reason for assaulting him other than the fact that I was protecting my mother at the time, stupidly.”

He denied that on the day of Mr Nisbet’s funeral he had refused to go when someone arrived to pick him up, and carried on cooking drugs instead. He denied that anyone had come to take him to the funeral.

Miss Sewell accused him of tailoring his evidence to suit his case that his mother had murdered Mr Nisbet. He denied that.

Karen Porter told of having a relationship with Mr Nisbet before his relationship with Milner. She said they had a son, Benjamin Porter. DNA testing was done after claims by Milner that Benjamin was not Mr Nisbet’s son, but it confirmed that he was his son.

She was asked about an incident at a party long ago, when she said she wanted to end the relationship, and Mr Nisbet had thrown himself in a swimming pool and made out that he was drowning. That was incomprehensible because the pool was not deep. Two of the partygoers dragged him out because he was being silly.

Under cross-examination, she was shown a letter she had written to Milner, beginning: “Do you feel better now that Phil has gone?”

The letter stated: “You are a wicked, evil woman and one day soon you will pay for all you have brought about.”

Defence counsel Rupert Glover said she had done everything she could to “sheet home” the death to Milner.

The trial is continuing.

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