BY ROMINAH FAKA
Zilma Ben who is charged with murder, aiding and abetting will face court on July 11 for plea.
Prosecution told court that the disclosures were only provided to the defence counsel yesterday.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Ricky Iomea questioned prosecution regarding the delay in serving the disclosures to defence, as in a previous court hearing, the court had directed the prosecution to provide these disclosures to the defence in a timely manner, as it will allow defence to properly obtain instructions from the accused for plea.
Defence informed court they would need time to look through the file before obtaining instructions from the accused to take her plea.
Court adjourned to July 11 for plea.
It was alleged on early hours of December 17, 2023 between 1am and 2am Nelson Magi the (first accused) and his wife Zilma Ben (second accused) and another female were on their way back to Jackson ridge after attending a party at Lau Valley.
They stopped on the main road next to Lau Valley SDA church.
They were all appeared to be drunk, loud and arguing with each other.
Opposite of the church was a group of people sitting down telling stories under a tent.
The (first accused) Nelson Magi turned to the group of people who were sitting under the tent and said “who of you strong and one of the people in the tent answered him by saying no one is strong”.
Magi approached them, grabbed a chair and threw it with force to the person who talked back to him earlier.
The deceased niece ran back to the house and woke up the deceased who was sleeping at that time.
The deceased went to the scene and tried to separate the first accused and the other person from arguing.
The deceased lead Magi away from further confrontations. However, the he assaulted the deceased by applying a front snap kick at him causing him to fell backwards at a distance.
The Nelson Magi then walked away towards his wife the Zilma Ben.
The Zilma Ben shouted at her husband Magi loudly and aggressively saying “go back and kill the deceased”.
Whilst shouting, she also threw stones at deceased house.
Magi then turned back and attacked the deceased on the rib/chest area with a piece of timber.
The deceased lost balance and fell down unconsciously on the ground.
He was rushed to the National Referral Hospital (NRH) but was pronounced dead.
Steward Tonowane acts for crown and Lazuaus Waroka act for Zilma Ben.
