Arizona republican., 1895-11-02
IT'S DEATH FOR DURRANT Murder in the First De-
 gree. The Jury Was Out but Twenty
 Minutes. Theatrical Scene in the Courtroom When the Verdict Was
 Announced.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 1.-Theo- dore Durrant. assistant superintend ent of the Emanuel Baptist church Sunday school. was today convicted of the murder of Blanche Lamont. for which he has been on trial since July 22, last
 The jury was out twenty minutes and arrived at verdict on the first ballot.
 As there was no recommendation of mercy, punishment was fixed at death.
 The scene in the court room when the verdict was announced will never be forgotten by those who were pres ent.
 Judge Murphy finished his charge at 8 80 and the jury at once retired. Although there was supposed to be little prospect of the verdict being re- turned before or 8 o'clock in the evening, the throng of spectators who had remained in the overcroWded court room all afternoon to hear the judges charge, settled themselves back in their seats to await the return of the jury.
 Mrs. Durrant and the prisoner talked and laughed together, as if an acquit- tal were a foregone conclusion. They were joined by a half dozen friends and the conversation was becoming an imated when it became whispered about that the jury had agreed upon a verdict. In an instant a hush fell upon the little circle that had gathered around the prisoner. Durrant's face, always pale, assumed a ghastly hue. and his mother was speeches..
 The big doors at the rear of the room opened and the members of the jury filed in.
 There was a stiffness in the court room that it had not before known In the trial The jury filed into the box, the clerk called the roll of the jury and Judge Murphy asked. 'tGentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon verdict?" 'We have" was the fore mans answer You will announce it.''
 Foreman Warren Dutton then said: "We, the jury, find defendant, William Henry Theodore Durrant, guilty of murder in the first degree"
 The next moment men were cheer ing wildly, while women wept hys- terically in the excitement. The bail if rapped loudly for order, but the tu- mutt continued for a minute before anything like quiet could be brought out of the disorder.
 Judge Murphy said that sentence would be passed next Friday, upon which day he would also set a day for the trial of Durrant on the chargeof murdering Minnie Williams.
 As the last words of the verdict were uttered, Durrant made a spasmodic effort to rise to his feet, but before he could do so his mother, with a half sigh, haH moan, threw her arms around his neck and sunk back into her chair. His mothers grief seemed to make Durrant forget his own posi- tion and for the next few minutes he sat with his arms around her neck. It was some time before Mrs Durrant could leave the court room.
 Durrant recovered his old time com posture and prepared to return to the county jail. With his overcoat swung carelessly over his arm, he walked leisurely out of the room, twirling his slight moustache with apparently as little concern as if he were merely a spectator of, instead of the principal figure in the exciting scene.
 The case will be appealed to the su- preme court and it is expected that nearly a year will elapse before a de-