May 10, 2013

Inmate tells murder trial of 'sleeper hold' conversation

By David Clarkson. Nikki Roper murder trial, Day 5. A former prison inmate claims that murder accused Nikki Roper said he put a sleeper hold on his ex-girlfriend ?because she was cheating?.

The inmate, who has name suppression, said the conversation took place at Christchurch Men?s Prison about a year after the death of Alexsis Maria Tovizi, who was found dead at her flat in Linwood, Christchurch, in December 2010.

The inmate said he had known 24-year-old Roper for three or four years.

About Christmas 2011 they had a conversation about Roper?s case. When he said he was accused of murder, the inmate asked him what had happened.

Roper said he had put the woman into a sleeper hold because she was cheating, and that the only thing that could muck up his trial was a bruise on her neck. He did not say what happened after he had put her in the hold.

The inmate said he wrote down the conversation about 30min to 1hr later, because he was worried because he had heard Roper saying in the prison yard that he might get another gang prospect to ?take the rap?.

He was allowed to refer to the notes he had made while he gave evidence, on the fourth day of Roper?s murder trial before Justice Forrest Miller and a jury in the High Court at Christchurch.

He said Roper had said he had been taught the sleeper hold by another inmate.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Simon Shamy, the inmate denied concocting the story of the conversation and telling the police so that he could try to get released on bail.

A prison officer in the At Risk Unit told the court that while at the unit he had asked Roper what he was in for. When Roper said it was murder, he asked if he had done it.

He was surprised when Roper said ?Yes,? and the officer asked him what he had done. Roper said: ?I drowned her.?

A second officer also gave evidence recounting that part of the conversation.

The trial then adjourned until Monday to hear evidence from medical experts.