The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-10-31
TRIAL ALMOST ENDED
THE DURRANT CASE WILL
PROBABLY GO TO THE
JURY TONIGHT.
SOLICITORS CLOSING SPEECH

He Reviewed the circumstances of
Miss LamOnt's Awful Murder, and
Drew the Conclusion That She Was
Killed by Durrant-The Court Room
Crowded TO its Greatest Capacity
Judge Murphy viii Charge the jury
This Morning when Court Meets.
SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, Oct. 80 Dis
trict Attorney Barnes to-day began his
closing argument On behalf of the State
in the trial of Theodore Durrant The
court room was crowded TO its greatest
capacity and close attention was paid to
the speaker. Mr.. Barnes spoke in part,
as follows:
The individual who perpetrated this
hideous murder, with which the defend
ant stands charged, and which has har-
roWed the soul and frozen the blood of
this community, is no ordinary criminal;
and his crime In every aspect in which it
may be considered is without a parallel It
was not committed under blind and fu-
Tious impu Sc to revenge some real or fan
cied wrong to his person, his property or
his character, nor from motives of gain,
nor in the commission of robbery, nor yet
under the hot spur of jealousy 1t was
In every sense a cold bloOded, vicious
murder IC was without the slightest
prOvOcatiOn or apparent excuse or pal
liation. The assassin chose for his vic
tim an innocent and helpless maiden.
She was u developed in mind, pure in
life and thought, of simple and unsus-
pecting nature, and presenting in body
none Of the qualities which are
supposed to excite the evil pas
sions Of seducer and libertine. For
the scene of his dreadful assault
the murderer selected an evangelc
church, dedicated to the worship of God.
He took the life of his victim, not with
the savage mercy of the quick pistol or
the silent knife, but he tortured her with
the lingering process of strangulatiOn,
driving his cruel fingers deep into the
tender flesh of her slender throat; and so
ti9rcely did he do his deYilish work, that
the stigma of his crime remained until
the discovery of her corpse, clearly dis
eernible as the cause of death, not only
by the surgical examiner, but by the
most unlearned observer. What other,
if any, wrong was done her before her
soul eXhaled and went to Heaven, we do
not know. The advancement of natural
decomposition baffled investigation and
made knowledge impossible
Mr.. Barnes then reviewed the circum-
stances in connection with Miss LamOnt's
body, and from the facts drew the con-
clusioI that she was murdered by some
member of the chnrch who had keys to
the building and in whom she had con-
fdence. The murderer must have been
man whose cunning was sufficient to
enable him to stifie the natural feeling
of timidity, which always accompanies
innocence, and induce her to go alone
with him to the darkened church in
which they both wOrshipped on Sunday.
Sucn a man, he said, was Theodore Dur
rant. Only moster, cspaOle of taking
the life of young girl, he said, could
remain cool, impressive and almost de-
fiant when accused of such crime
Mr.. Barnes closed with an eloquent
appeal to he ju y to avenge the murder
of Blanche Lamont and protect the wo-
men and girls of the State by returning
a verdict of guilty of murder in the first
degree with the penalty of death.
Judge Murphy will enarge the jury to-
morrow morning and a verdict is ex
pected by to morrow night.