St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-03
CHILD AGAINST FATHER.
Dramatic Scenes in the Koran
Murder Trial Yesterday.

CHILD AGAINST FATHER.
Dramatic Scenes in the Koran
Murder Trial Yesterday.
There is a sentiment extant that
Christ Koran ought not to be found
guilty of wilfully numbering Moritz
Weisser. The willingness of his wife
to testify against him, and the fact that
his bright little daughter of nine years
was put on the stand by the state to
prove the homicide, tend to arouse
sympathy for the unfortunate man.
When the state called Mrs. Koran to he
sworn as witness, Mr.. Erwin stated
that the defendant refused to allow her
to testify Oh the grounds that she is his
wife. Judge Otis sustained the posi-
ton taken by Mr.. Erwin, and Mrs.
Koran was asked to retire. Rosa Koran,
the nine-year-old child, is very bright
one, and told a remarkable story on the
witness stand relative to the shooting
and the surrounding circumstance. Mr..
Erwin asserted that the child has been
drilled to detail her story, and the
father is authority for the statement
that the child was not in the kitchen at
the time of the shooting. and had writ
ten her story out and memOriZed it after
a plan detailed to her.
The jury was completed during the
forenoon yesterday, County Attorney L.
ID. o. Brien opened the case to the jury,
and the court. counsel and jurors viewed
the scene OF the homicide, 4S2 Sher
burne avenue, before noon. In his
opening, Mr.. O'Brien made a statement
of the shooting Aug. s, last, and the
surrounding circumstances. The mo-
tive, he said, was jealousy, but it was
jealousy not founded on fact. Koran
had told his aunt, Mrs. Brown, that he
would shoot Weisser. The fact that
Koran was jealous is not defense in
law. If Mrs. Koran had been guilty of
improper relations with WeiSser that
fact was not, in law, a justification for
| the homicide; but Mrs. Koran is a hard
working woman. and had not been UNI
faithful. No man has right to try his
case and meet out the punishment, al
though the alleged prOvocatiOn appeals
to the sympathieS of mankind. The de-
PENDANT will be shown to be man of
ungOyernable temper and of jealous dis
position. The jury was appealed TO by
the astute prosecutor not TO give heed
| to an attempt to blacken the character
| of Mrs. Koran. She would be offered
as witness. but it rested with the de-
| Tense to permit her evidence being re-
ceived.
At the opening of the afternoon ses-
sion the state called as the first witness
! Assistant Coroner DIR. j. B. Darling,
who detailed the results OF the autopsy
and the cause of death. Mrs. Koran was
| then called but was not permitted to
| testify, as already stated. and Rose
| Koran. the nine-year-old child of the de-
PENDANT, was called. She was assisted
in mounting the witness stand by Judge
Otis in kindly manner that put the
| child at entire ease. The county attOr-
| ney asked that the mother be allowed to
sit near SO that the child might not be
embarrassed. Mr.. Erwin said. LAS an
officer of this court l. assert that the
child has been drilled, and ask that the
mother be excluded from the court room
while the child testitieS." Judge Otis
| directed the mother 10 retire to an ante
| room.
In response to questions by the county
attorney the child related a story of the
shooting in precise way that displayed
| unusual prscocity and Intelligence. The
substance of her story is as follows:
M0ritz Weisser lived at her house with his
| two children, Lizzie and Louisa. Her father
| had not been living at home for some time
| before the shooting. She WAS playing on the
| front porch with Louisa Weisser the evening
of the shooting. She saw her father coming
|
hand and led her to the porch lie stopped
to kiss Louisa WeiSser. and she went in and
told her mother that her father had come
Mrs. Koran was sitting near the sink in TIT
| kitchen peeling potatoes, and MI. Weisse
was sitting on the lower step or the bacl
stairs talking TO Mrs. Koran. Her mother
told the child to tell her father that she was
in the kitchen and for him to come in. She
also told Mr.. Weisser to go up stairs. Mr.
Weisser took mis- hat off the shelf and started
up stairs backward. When ne got 10 tn,
third step he stopped. Her father came int
the kitchen and shot him. Mr.. WeisseI
cried out ''Onr' and went up stairs. HeI
father then struggled with her mother, anC
she asked him to give her the revolver, anC
tried TO take it from him. The child ther
went ana called Albert Brown, at the reques
of her mother and he came In q few minutes
and br, u ght doctor.
Mr.. Erwin put in about two hours il
cross-examning the child and subjected
her to a most rigid test of his art, but
the story in chief was closely adhered
to. She said she did not know that hel
father told a different story from thai
told by her. The story varied in some
particulars from that told at the in
quest. She had then stated that he
mother had told her to go and look t.
see If her father was coming. She
stated yesterday:
She had not been sent to watch for he
father. She left the kitchen after Weiss
! came i'll and began to talk TO her mother
| The reason she told her mother that he
father had come was because she knew tina
he did not like to see Mr.. Weisser in tn
kitchen. She persisted i'll the story that N
one told her that her father did not like {
see Weisser with her mother When pTesse
for an answer as to why she knew II sh
said that when her father was Twin
at home her mother told Mr.. Weisse
to hold his child Louisa, while she fixed h
sheets of his bed. and her father hit Weisse
with a chair and scOlded him. The chill
went over the details of the shooting again
She said when she went into the kitchen Il
tell her mother about the coming of he
father her mother had peeled three potatoe!
, | and had partly peeled the fourth. 0When he
mother told Weisser to go up stairs he locke
around for his hat first, looking on the tabl
then OH the gasoline stove, and then foun'
it OH the shelf the sink; when he got
! the third step he stopped and continue
talking to Mrs Koran. Toe particulars o
: the shooting even to the position of ali til
| parties and the flash fromathe pistol, WEI
| described, as well as every motion of th
hree persons.
When Mr.. Erwin asked if the chill
. | did not know that it fixed the flash t
; far from the revolver, Mr.. O'Brien o.
, | iected, and the court suggested that til
child was being pressed very hard. NJ
Erwin said he was aware of it. but dut
to his client demanded such course, D.
. | cause he never experienced such r.
) markable case of young child testlf.