Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-02-21

VERDICT or MANSLAUGHTER.-Th
trial Of Clarence Roam, colored, and
Virginia Mead, white, charged with
killing the l%atter's husband on the
night of the 9TH day of last October,
BEGAN in the Corporation Court TODAY
and was concluded in ten minutes after
il had commenced. Quite a number of
spectators had assembled without the
bar to witness the proceedings and
were disappointed at the turn the affair
took. :. G.. Brent, esq, appeared as
counsel for Roam, and John II. Greene,
esd. for Virginia Mead. The prosecu-
non was represented by Leonard Mar
bury. esq, Commonwealth Attorney.
IN had been agreed between the coun
sci for Roam and that for the prosecution
that the prisoners be allowed to plead
guilty TO the charge of manslaughter.
Roam wa brought into court at fifteen
minutes past ten o'clock by Bailitf W.
II. Price and placed in the dock. At
half.past ten Virginia Meade entered
the room and took q seat alongside her
sable partner in crime. The court sub
scquently convened and the following
iurymen answered To their names: Jas.
+. Johnson (foreman), JOS. Clarke, Jas.
Huntington, Fred. Paf, jr., Johu H..
Jasper, Frank Ballinger, Horace Col
lingsworth, w. f. Vincent, VIM. Ho-
gan, Chas. w. Howell, VIM. Goodhand,
Thos. Hoy, .jr., Willard F. Padgett, Chas.
+. Marshall, Geo. T. Price, Geo. B.
Cochran, John T. Boyd, Levi Hurdle.
Wm. Richards and Il. l.. Adams. The
eight last named were stricken off.
Mr.. Marbury then addressed the jury,
stating that the prosecution was
satisfied that with the medical ties.
timony in the case the prisoners were
justified in answering to the crime of
~manslaughter and hat the Common
wealth would be satisfied with such a
verdict. The defense signified their
acquiescence in this, and the jury, with
out leaving the room, returned a YER
dict Of mauslaughter and fixed the
term of Imprisonment nj five years in
the penitentiary. The jury Was then
discharged and Judge Norton pro-
nounced the sentence upon the couple,
who seemed to be ut ease and perfectly
contented with their fate. There is
considerable comment among laymen
concerning the disposition Of the case.
1t will be remembered that the evidence
in the Mayors Court and at the coro-
ner's inquest was 10 the effect that the
Meade woman sent for Roam whose re-
lations with the woman were notorious)
TO assault her husband that she con-
Quoted Ed. Meade from the house in
order that Roam could do her bidding
that the negro struck the deceased on
the head with a brick, cutting him Sc
riously. Meade struggled to the sta
tion house in a pitiable plight, his life's
blood cascading over his face, and so
overcome was he that he could give
but an incoherent account of himself.
He. however, said Jenny (meluing his
wite) could tell who had assaulted him.
In the Police Court next day he charged
Roam with making the murderous at
tack at the instigation of the woman.
Other witnesses came forward who
testified to having heard the plot form
ed between Virginia Meade and Roam
for the assault on Ed. Meade. The lat
ter died that evening, presumably from
the blows he had received at the hands
of Roam but at the coroner's inquest
DIR. Smith, who performed the autopsy,
averred that the wounds Meade re-
ceived did not necessarily cause his
death that his body was so diseased
that he had had but a short tenure
upon life also that his skull was not
fractured, and had he not been in the
condition he was his wounds at the
hands Of Roam would have proven SUI
perticial. The Corporation Court, in
the face of this evidence, concluded that
a case of murder could not be proven
hence the disposition of the matter rs
described above.