The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-03-27
THE MURDER TRIAL.
A Venire of Men Exhausted and
No Jury.

NO jury
The trial of William Gates for the MUIR
der of Eugene Sullivan was begun in the
Circuit Court yesterday afternoon with
Judge Winslow on the bench Mr.. James
Cavanagh had been appointed by the court
to defend the prisoner, and District Attor-
ney Myron Baker appeared for the state
The witnesses and jurors subpenaed in the
case could not reach town very well until
noon, so the case was set for 1:30 p M
When Sheriff Harmon in his musical voice
announced the ''Circuit Court for Kenosha
County is now in session" and commanded
silence in the court room, the court room
was comfortably filled, mostly by people
from Bristol and neighboring towns, who
had been summoned either as possible iur-
ors or as witnesses, or were present as inter
ested spectators. Both attorneys declaring
themselves ready for the trial of the case,
the court instructed the Clerk to read the
names of twelve Of the men summoned as
Jurors. Alter they had sworn to answer
the questions that would be put to them To
the best Of their knowledge, the work OF
selecting the jurors began. In about two
hours and half the Yenire of sixty men
was exhausted and court adjourned until
o'clock this morning. In the course of the
questioning it appeared that most of the
jurors had formed or expressed an opinion
as to the guilt or innocence of the accused,
and for this cause thirty-six were excused
by the court, In almost every case they
thought it would take testimony to remove
the opinion they had formed The State
used three Of its peremptory challenges
which relieved Messrs. Robert Scherer,
Byron Crane and Matthias Fonk of the duty
of serving as jurors in this case. Mr.. Cav.
anagh peremptorily excused Messrs. A. F.
Gould, Theodore Werve, VIM. Gear and
Thos. Gibbons on behalf of the defendant.
When court adjourned, Frank eraser, OF
Kenosha, Franklin Newbury, of Wheat
land, James NORM, James Rafferty,, Ed
ward Tigh and Peter Stahl, of Brighton;
VIM. Overkamp and Benjamin Lahrman, OF
Randall; William Rattegan, Levi Fox and
Patrick Tobin, of Pleasant Prairie, re-
manned in the jury box, but none Of them
were accepted as jurors. Any of them are
liable to be excused for one reason or
another. When the venire was exhausted
Judge Winslow ordered Sheriff Harmon to
summon another venire of thirty-six men to
appear in court this morning at 9 o'clock,
and then adjourned the court until that
time. The time it will take to try the case
will depend largely upon the lawyers The
plea Of insanity will be the line of the de-
Tense and it will be the duty of Mr.. Cavan-
agh to show that the prisoner was not &C.
countable for his act in killing Eugene Sui
Ivan. The killing is easily established. The
readers of the TELEGRAPH COURIER prob
ably remember the details of the case as
published last October Gates was living
at Mr.ssGeo Shields, about two miles south
of Bristol Station. On the evening Of OCt
18th he went out to the stable and foun
Sullivan seated On a stool milking a COW.
He threw his left arm around Sullivan's
shoulder and cut his throat with butcher
knife held in his right hand. He then
pulled his victim over on his back and
stabbed him in the throat and breast.
When the last spark of life had fled he
dragged the corpse out into the yard. Sue
in briet are the facts in the case.