May 28, 2010

Friend tells of photo offer after killing

Smail murder trial, Day 5. By Anne Clarkson

When?he phoned a friend to say?he had just killed his friend Keith Graeme McCormick, Eric Neil Smail offered to text her a photograph of the pool of blood to prove he had done it.

Clair Mark said she received a phone call in Timaru from Eric Neil Smail in Sumner saying he had "cut in really deep" and killed his friend.

She told the fifth day of the trial in the High Court at Christchurch that Smail offered to take a photograph of the pool of blood in the lounge, and told her there was blood everywhere. He was going to text the photo to her to make her believe he had done it, she said.

Smail, 53, denies the charge of murdering his disabled friend Mr McCormick by cutting his throat. He has said through defence counsel that he accepted responsibility for the death and would accept a finding of manslaughter, citing provocation as his defence.

The witness said Smail was the best man at her wedding, and had stayed in touch by text and phone calls with her.

On July 28, 2005, she received a phone call from him while she was at work.

She told the court that Smail said he had killed Mr McCormick, and then he told her that he hadn?t done it. She said he seemed agitated and she tried to encourage him to get some help but he told her there was no point.

She said she asked him if he had been drinking as some of his words were slurred. ?He wasn?t jovial as he normally was, he was tenser and a wee bit panicky. I thought he had been drinking,? she said.

He said he had got home late and Mr McCormick had wound him up. He told her he snapped and killed him with a sharp knife from the kitchen, and that he had cut in really deep, she said.

He said the police would arrive soon, and talked about taking his own life. He said he would go to prison for what he had done.

He also told her that perhaps he should have smothered Mr McCormick with a pillow.?

She put the call on speaker phone so a work colleague could also hear the call.

Soon after that call Smail phoned her again.

He asked her who she had called to tell about the killing.

He said he didn?t want her to hate him. He seemed more upset than in the first phone call and he was getting angry at her. When she told him to phone an ambulance he said there was no point ? he would need a hearse.

The trial is continuing before Justice Lester Chisholm and a jury. It may take four weeks, with the crown calling 51 witnesses.