Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-07-08
Court PrOceedIngs-Murder
Trial.


1t will be remembered that at the MAJ
term Of the Court of Common Pleas, Mr..
James G. Sawyer was indicted for th,
murder of VIM. Holcomb, whose dead
body was found in the woods, near the
csnter of Vernon, in the month of May,
1867. The adjourned term was convened
for the special purpose of trying this case.
Court met at 10 o'clock, Monday morn.
ing, Judge Tuttle presiding. The Prose.
cutting attorney, ]. N. Stull, Esq, assisted
by Henry Mckinney, Esq, of Akron, ap-
peared for the State, and Nessrs. Hutch
ins and Glidden and Hon. John Hutchins
for defendant. Several hours were con-
sumed in ~empanneling a jury. The pan
mel was finally filled with the following
gentlemen, VIZ
Martin Correll, Newton, 81
David Carlisle, I"
Manyile Barber,
Lyman 7. Soule, "
VIM. Herbert, "
Chas. E. Kistler,
j. w. Little. "
VIM. T. Parker, Harrington,
Jacob Hammond, Bristol
Albert VanGorder, Warren,
Alden T. Brooks,
Michael Bailey, L~ordstown.
After the jury had been sworn, the case
upon the part of the State was stated very
briefly by Mr.. Stlll. He said in sub.
stance:
Ca the 9th day of May, 1867, Mr.. Will
liam Holconb, OF Vernon, in this county !,
came to his death by means of q rife shot
wound in the head, while in the woods
hunting. ra1
The State expects to prove to. you
that William Holcomb was murdered, and
that the defendant at the bar, james G.
Sawyer, is guilty Of hat murder. The
proof to sustain this charge is almost en-
tirely Of a ef~rcumstantial character. 1t
will be shown to you that on the day of
the occurrence the defendant called at the
shop Of the deceased, near the center of
Vernon, and told him there were squirrels
down in the woods near where be Saw
yer) was going TO work and invited Hol-
comb to come down with his gun and
shoot them. In the course OF the day Nj.
Holcomb took his gun aud went to the
woods. He came back alive. No
one except the defendant was near Mr..
Holcomb at the time of his death. He, il
any one living, knows what then and
there occurred. Mr.. Holcomb was shot
in the head, the ball entering the skull on
the right side, a little above the ear, it
passed through the hat at the upper edge
Of the band, and its course was downward,
indicating that il came from & point high
CT than the head of the deceased. The
ball, 1t is agreed, came from Mr.. Holcombs
own rife. There was no mark of powder
on the hat and none about The face of the
deceased, as there would have been had
he gun been in~the hands Of Mr.. Holcomb
when fred. The defendant, soon after
the occurrence, gave notice of it TO the
nearest neighbors, who repaired to the
spot. The deceased was found BY them
lying near a tree, his gun by his side.
The defendant gave his statement Of the
occurrence ; an informal inquest was held
and the body was buried. Mr.. SRwyer's
statements of the occurrence have bean
contradictory; 70 one person he stated that
he sat on a log with the deceased and talk
ed with Kim, to another that he was not
more than across the fence; to one he said
he saw Holeomb fall ; TO another that he
heard the report Of the gun and looking
over saw the deceased lying by the tree.
Evidence will be given tending TO show
that the parties had been shooting at q
marh, the report of the rife having been
heard st regular intervals, too frequent 10
make it probable that the shots were at
squirrels or other game.
Men never commit such deeds as this
without q motive. The motive in this
case, he expected to show, grew out of an
improper intimacy between the defendant
and the wife Of the deceased. This intima-
cy had been noticed by neighborSfor some
months before the occurrence. The two
we're seen very frequently together, riding,
walking, in public and in private. And
about the time of the occurrence, or short
ly after, the defendant quarreled with and
left his own wife, then living in Vernon, |
and went q short time after the decease of
Mr.. Holcomb, to1ive at the house of the
deceased, taking with him some property
of his own. In his judgment it could be
shown beyond any any question, that the
intimacy between these persons was Of an
improper character, and that the motive
of the defendant, in making way with the
deceased, was that he might the more easi-
lY have access to the wife.
From the peculiar circumstances sur
rounding the death of Mr. Holcomb, it
will appear that he was murdered, and from
the relations of the defendant with Mr..
Holeomb, his contradictory statements,
his inconsistent conduct, and the extreme
improbability, nay almost impossibility,
that the gun could have been IN the hands
of the deceased when fired, and from a
thousand minor circumstances which are
scarcely animated in this statement, but
which win be fully detailed in the eyi.
dence, it will be shown that the defendant
is the guilty party.
Mr.. Stulfs statement was itself brief 4
and the above purports TO embrace only
the outlines of the statement.
F. E HutchIns, Esq, then stated the
case on the part Of the defendant at con.
siderable length. In opening he said that
much Of what had been stated BY the pros
ecuting Attorney was true, much more
partially true and partially untrue and
much would be found to be wholly with
out foundation. Arludingt to the trouble be-
the defendant and his wife, claimed
by the State to have been the result of the
intimacy between Sawyer and Mrs. Hol-
comb, he said this difficulty commenced
long anterior to the time Sawyer first saw
or heard of Mrs. Holcomb, and was not