May 09, 2013

Trial hears killing confession

By David Clarkson. Nikki Roper murder trial, further Day 4 report. More than an hour into his police video interview, Nikki Roper asked if he could have a cigarette when it was over, and said, ?Yeah. I killed her.?

He was being interviewed in February 2011, nearly two months after the death of his ex-girlfriend, Alexsis Maria Tovizi.

He had begun the interview saying that she had committed suicide and he did not know how she died.

The two-hour DVD was played to the jury in the High Court at Christchurch on the fourth day of the trial of 34-year-old Roper on charges of murdering the woman, unlawfully taking her car, stealing her laptop, and dishonestly using her bankcard five times.

Roper said: ?Her family were hating on her for being back with me. She told me she wanted to commit suicide. We have talked about it heaps. She?s tried it heaps and I have tried it, too.?

He said they had made a deal ?that if one of us died, the other would follow?.

Afterwards, he planned to go back to the Stanmore Road where she had died to commit suicide himself.

Roper said they had been drinking heavily on the weekend of her death and they had argued and she had thrown a jug at him.

The police said the toxicology results showed that she didn?t kill herself. ?That option is gone,? said the detective.

Roper then asked for a cigarette afterwards, and admitted that he had killed her.

He said she had begun drowning herself in a pot of water and she had held his hand on her head while she did it.

?The only thing moving was her chest, taking in the water,? Roper said.

She had stopped breathing, and her body was convulsing. ?It?s hard to explain,? he told the detective.

He then carried her to bed.

The trial before Justice Forrest Miller will continue into next week.