Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-04-08
THE rABoRN MURDER TRIAL.

| On Thursday evening in June last,
the whole town was startled by the intel
lgence that man had been shot and
killed in South Delaware in open day
The scene of the crime was a low drink
ing saloon, at the door of which the
body of the murdered man lay, horribly
mangled and weltering in its blood. The
circumstances of the crime, as rumor
gave them at the time and as subse-
quently confirmed by preliminary legal
investigation, were substantially as fol-
lows
John Taborn and Richard Grevous.
both colored, had fallen into a trivial
dispute about a jewsharp. Taborn, in
spired by considerable bad whisky,
snatched the instrument from Grevous,
to whom it belonged, and attempted to
destroy it. This led to a scuffle, in the
course of which Taborn got himself
slapped, as he seems to have deserved.
He then went away and procured his
gun, and made an effort to shoot Grew
Gus, but some one discovering his Pur-
pose. seized the gun and removed the
cap. Taborn then went down town and
bought box of caps. and returning to
the grocery, saw Grevous sitting in the
door. He walked past his victim as
though not intending to notice him, then
suddenly turned and fired at a distance
of only few PAGES. The shot struck
Grevous in the head and neck, he
stretched prone on the ground. and in a
moment or two was dead. Taborn
threw down his gun, and attempted to
escape, but was soon overtaken and de-
tanned by a colored man. and then con-
Quoted to jail.
On Tuesday last Taborn was put upon
his trial before the Court of Common
Pleas, for murder in the first degree. The
following jury was empaneled for the
trial:
Harvey Heazlett, VIM. Van Sickle,
Jacob Williams, Roswell Cook, Andrew
]. Smith, Russell c. Hall, Fitch J. Hart,
Collins P. Ellsbree. James H. Crumb,
James Hinlkle, Abijah Mann and Chas.
NJ. Fowler.
Gen. ]. S. Jones, Prosecutor for the
county. conducted the prosecution, and
Messrs. Reid, Humphreys and Glover,
the defense. Tuesday. and the greater
part of Wednesday. were consumed in
he preliminaries of the trial and the ex-
animation of Witnesses. There was but
little. if any, dispute as to the principal
of the murder, which
were developed substantially as above
detailed. The defense making no ef-
fort to deny, attempted only to Palliate
he prisoners guilt, the object being to
reduce the degree of his crime and the
severity Of his penalty. The plea is
made for Taborn that he was drunk at
he time he committed the deed, and /
therefore acted from sudden frenzy and
lot from malicious Premeditation. The
on the other hand, claims
hat, admitting the alleged intoxication
IF the accused, it does not preclude de-
iberate malice or necessarily palliate
murder.
We believe the defense further en-
to show possibility or prob
ability of insanity on the part of the ac-
,used, by proving that that infrmity is
hereditary in his family.
This being one of the very few in
stances. ifnot the only one. of any person
being put on trial for his life in this
county, the case has excited considera-
ole interest, and on Wednesday and
Thursday the court room was crowded :
by all ages, colors and sexes. In the
conduct of the trial, however, there has
been very little of an exciting nature,
and the prisoner himself has exhibited
as much unconcern and Indifference as
.hough he were a professional thief on
rial for petty larceny.
On Wednesday afternoon, the argu-
ment of the case commenced in the
presence of large concourse of people.
Up to the present writing, the attention
of the court is still being occupied with
the speeches of counsel, and we have
no foreshadowing of what the verdict of
the jury viii be- 1t will be looked for
with profound interest.