Tully murder trial had ‘false start’
Convicted Ashburton WINZ shooter Russell John Tully interrupted proceedings on the first day of his trial and was removed from the court before the jury panel was replaced completely.
The court’s plan to ensure his fair trial rights were not damaged by his own outburst can now be reported, after trial judge Justice Cameron Mander lifted the interim suppression order today – the day after the jury’s five guilty verdicts.
Media are also now allowed to report that Tully was assessed as being fit to stand trial before the strange 11-day hearing in the High Court at Christchurch began, mostly without him present.
Health assessors’ reports had been ordered under the Criminal Procedures (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act during the steps towards 39-year-old Tully’s double murder trial.
Justice Mander considered the findings and made a ruling that Tully was fit to instruct defence counsel and to stand trial, but that was not allowed to be reported until the suppression order was reconsidered after the trial.
A chambers hearing to consider a whole series of suppression orders has now been held, with Tully present, as well as the Crown, the amicus curiae who presented a defence case during the trial, and media representatives present. Tully had not lawyer of his own.
Justice Mander ruled that the outcome of the fitness ruling could be reported but the suppression order remains on the contents of the health assessor reports, by psychologists and psychiatrists.
Tully told the jury during a later outburst that he was on hunger strike during the trial. His health was monitored daily, while he was pushed into various hearings – usually without the jury present – in a wheelchair.
Late in the trial, Tully ended his hunger strike by having water, and later food. He was then able to walk into court and be present during proceedings. He never again interrupted proceedings by shouting in court and preventing progress as had happened twice in front of the trial jury.
On the first day of the trial on February 24, the jury panel was split into two.
One panel was brought into court for selection, before Tully’s outburst led to him being removed from the court and the trial halting.
He shouted that he was not being allowed medication he needed, and the judge was “standing in the way of someone having human rights and justice”.
“There’s no law here,” he shouted, and after repeated warnings from Justice Mander to be quiet, he was taken out of court. He thanked the judge when he was taken out, because he wanted to go to a cell where he could lie down.
The other jury panel was then brought into the courtroom and the empanelling went ahead without Tully in the room. It had seen none of his outburst.
Justice Mander, in his ruling lifting the suppression today, referred to it as the trial’s “false start”.
The second jury saw two of his outbursts, briefly, when he was bought into court but shouted until he was removed, but he spent the last day of evidence and the closing addresses by counsel and the judge’s summing up sitting quietly in court.
The jury found him guilty on Wednesday of the murders of Peggy Turuhira Noble and Susan Leigh Cleveland and the attempted murder of Kim Elizabeth Adams, in a shotgun shooting at the Ashburton Work and Income NZ office on September 1, 2014.
He was found not guilty of the attempted murder of Lindy Louise Curtis as she took shelter beneath her desk. The masked gunman shot her in the leg, but the jury watched and rewatched the WINZ CCTV footage of the shooting before delivering its not guilty verdict.
It had evidently decided that Tully had realised after his first shot that she was still alive when he looked at her again, and he had decided not to fire another shot.
He was also convicted on two charges of unlawful possession of shotguns.
Category: News
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