Accused asked for handshake after killing

Keith McCormick (pictured) died in July 2005. Photo / Supplied

After killing his paralysed friend Keith Graeme McCormick, Eric Neil Smail asked the neighbour who found him nearby to shake hands one last time, like friends, then take him to the police.

The neighbour, Paul Wilson, said Smail was saying he had finally done it, finally killed him, and kept repeating that he loved Mr McCormick.

Smail, 53, is on trial for murder before Justice Lester Chisholm and a jury in the High Court at Christchurch.

He denies the murder charge but his defence counsel has told the court he accepted responsibility for the death and would accept a finding of manslaughter.

Today was the seventh day of the trial, at which the crown plans to call evidence from 51 witnesses.

Mr Wilson said he found Smail in the school grounds across the road from the house where Smail had cut Mr McCormick's throat. Smail called out to come and get him and take him to the police.

Smail asked him to shake his hand, like friends, for the last time, he said.

Mr Wilson had previously been to the house where he saw Mr McCormick slumped in his chair, with his head back and his throat cut from ear to ear. There was blood on the floor, he said.

Smail's sister, Wendy Smail, asked Mr Wilson to find her brother as she was scared he was going to take his own life.

When he found Smail he could smell that he had been drinking. He was shaking, slumping, and falling over and he and Miss Smail had to help him climb over the fence of the school.

He said an ambulance driver put a blanket around Smail and when the local policeman arrived he put him in the police car.

Another neighbour, Russell Day, who was also at the school looking for Smail, said when they saw him he told them that the only weapon he had on him was a cell phone.

An ambulance officer told the court he met a group outside the house as he was returning to the ambulance after checking on Mr McCormick. Smail was upset, shaking and sobbing.

He asked him if he knew the person inside the house, and Smail said that he had killed him.

He said it was a cold and drizzly night, and Smail seemed to be in shock, so he put a blanket around him.

The trial is continuing.

- NZPA