The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-06-09
crRcUIr COURT pRocEEDINGs.
Trial and Conviction Of Hanson Dorsey
Sentence of Jacob Kerchner, &c.

James Rice, electment; tired before jury,
and verdict rendered for the property and S.
damages. Yelott and Bond for plaintiffs
Cross for defendants.
MONDAY.
A jury was tmpaRnelled to determine the
question Of the sanity or insanity of Margaret
A. Brown. The jury declared her non rom
pos mentis, and the court ordered that she be
confined in the Maryland Hospital for the In
sane until she shall be discharged in due
course of law.
William Motion, colored, convicted of as
sault with intent to kill Annie Mack, colored,
was sentenced to be confined in the peniten-
tiary for two years.
Hanson Dorsey, charged with arson, was
brought into court on Monday morning. In
the indictment charging the crime are several
counts, one for maliciously, wilfully and fe-
| loniously setting fire to and burning an out
house of Jacob Thompson which was parcel
of a dwelling house, and the others similar to
the first, except that they set out that the out
house burned was not a parcel of any dwell
ling house. Messrs. Seabrook and Maulsby,
counsel for the prisoner, announced that the
case would be tried before the court. ID. N.
Henning and Douglass B. Smith appeared
for the State. Judges Miller, Smith and
Jones, comprising the full bench, sat in the
case.
The first witness was Harry Thompson, who
testified: son the 9th of last April | lived
with my brother Jacob, on Main street, in
Westminster. His house is on a lot fronting
80 feet, separated from the Zeiber property
by an alley six feet wide and having three
feet-wide alley on the west. The lot is about
200 feet deep to an alley; about 10 or II feet
from the house the stable commenced and
ran back to the alley, covering the whole
Ill - IL, L. T., Ill
the first and second floors for horses. On the
lower floor in the front corner to the west was
the office; next to the Office is the gangway
leading to the second floor; then comes a va
cant space or feet wide, used for storing
feed; then there are stalls to the alley. On
the other side there were stalls from the alley
about half way up the stable, and in front of
that were two rows of carriages and buggies.
There was an aisle between the stalls or 6
feet wide. The ceiling was of solid boards,
with no opening to the second floor except
the gangway for taking horses up and down.
Hay was taken down from back door on the
alley. The stable was built on a stone foun-
dation. There were two folding doors in
front, which are never fastened except on
stormy nights There were several openings
in the foundation on the side on which the
carriages were-holes paved through by the
horses-one large enough for man to crawl
through, at the first or second stall from the
carriages. There were doors on the alley,
fastened inside by a cross-bar and hooks.
No way of getting in except through the front
doors or the holes. | examined before the
fire; there was dry bedding in all the stalls.
The floor was swept clean where the carriages
were. The nearest carriage to the stalls was
a large closed one-right against the stall.
There was row of carriages and row of
buggies, carriages nearest the side ofthe stable,
very close to each other and close to the side.
There were about % horses in the stable;
they were fed about o'clock; fed hay in
managers, which were up against the side of
the stable. Fresh bedding was put in every
night, a forkful to a horse. [ slept in the
office that night. Upstairs were horses, hay,
straw, fodder, harness, plows, &c. In the
room over office my brother Robert and
Aaron Shaeffer slept. | went into the office
to bed after feeding at o'clock. Augustus
Ourser was with me in the Office. He,
brother Robert, Aaron Shaeffer and boarded
with the family. About 10 or 1920 o'clock
Robert Goodwin and John Clark came into
the office and wanted the lantern. | told
them they could not have it, as might need
it myself. / had been asleep. saw nothing
more of them until about II o'clock, they re-
turned and woke me, calling out that the
who was in the house, and he came to the
window. | then went up the gangway and
called the other boys; they answered me and
rolled over in bed, and | went and got two
horses and started down the gangway, but
they got away and went back. When | first
saw the fire it was in the centre of the stable
on the right side between two horses, very
small, but burning rapidly. 1t looked as if it
caught in front of the horses and burned to-
ward the centre of the stable. AS | started
down with the horses the fire had then got to
the gangway. | went out and around to the
back door, where | found Goodwin, Clark
and Oursler, and tried to open doors, but
could not, because they were fastened on the
inside. | went to the house and helped save
furniture. The stable fell in about the time
we got furniture out. My brother Robert,
Aaron Shaeffer, horses, carriages, harness,
hay, corn &C.. were burned. | saw the bo-
dies and identified Shaeffer by bunch of
keys and Robert by a suspender buckle.
When Goodwin and Clark asked for the Ian
tern they did not say what they wanted with
it; they were familiar with the stable, having
often worked there" No new facts were
elected by the cross-eXamination, except that
the holes in the foundation were very near to
where he first saw the fire, and that person
crawling through the hole would go through
Zeiber's lot.
Augustus Oursler testified: 81 worked for
Jacob Thompson; was at the farm that day,
returned home about o'clock in the even
ing, and put away my horses. When l came
home horses were already fed and bedded.
went to bed in the Office at $50 O clock, and
slept until Goodwin came in and wanted the
light. Harry told him he could not have it,
and he went out. Clark came in and took
hold of the lantern. Harry told him to put
it down, and he went out, leaving the door
open. | raised up and shut the door and saw
Dorsey and Warfield outside. | heard some
one rattle the door up stairs, and then fell
asleep and heard no more until Goodwin and
Clark came and woke me and gave the alarm
of fire. Goodwin tried to save horses. The
fire was then at the middle of the stable, blaz-
ing along the straw in front of the horses,
where | thought it caught. Harry was up
stairs when got out. The flames were reach
ing along the boards to the upper floor and
the light was bright enough for persons out
side to see there was fire. After pulling
out a wagon, Goodwin, Clark and | went to
open the back doors. The foundation is Is
inches or feet high, and in it, about the
middle of the stable, there is hole large
enough for a man to crawl through. | have
known Hanson Dorsey for ten years; he never
worked at the stable; l have seen him come
THERE W HlTG HOTS6S. he llNeu Ill u mousse on
the alley that passes the rear of the stable,
near the railroad, about $50 yards from the
stable"
Cross examined, the witness said: II did
not see the fire until a few minutes after
Harry saw it; not until | got out of the office
into the stable. The straw was burning un-
der the front of the carriage, that had been
worked out of the stall by the horse, but was
not burning as much under the carriage as in
front of the horses. There was a dirt floor
under the carriage, on which no straw was
permitted unless kicked there by the horses.
There was pole between the horse and car
riage, which was run close up to the pole.
Horses, as general thing scatter their bed
ding before lying down. Straw might have
got under the carriage before the fire." No
other new facts were elected by the cross
examination.
Jacob Thompson then took the stand and
testified: 81 am the proprietor of the livery
stable; l rent it by the year; had it or 8
years." The witness then gave description
of the stable and its contents exactly as Harry