The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-29
HIS CRAZY ACTIONS
Sebastian Becomes Irritable and Ner-
vous in the Court Room
MAKES A SHOW OF HIMSELF
Attorneys Address the Jury. and
the Defendants Counsel Makes
Plea for His Client-Ad-
Journed Till Monday.

Great Falls, March 2s.-Saturday was
a day Of unforeseen incidents in the Sc
bastian murder trial. The defendant
has sat near the rail during the entire
trial. speaking no word of his own vo-
lition to any one and with hardly
word being addressed to him. His only
movement has been with his hands.
Day after day, as the trial progressed,
he has continually and persistly twist
ed from hand to hand a black derby
hat. This has been the only sign of
interest the defendant has shown. and
his almost Indifferent demeanor from
the opening gave little promise of the
startling outbreak this morning. Sc
bastian Is a small understood man,
presenting many of the characteristic
features of Max Naudau's degenerate
type. His head is small, forehead low
and somewhat retreating; he has a
thin, short mustache but no beard his
complexion is deeply swarthy; his eyes
staring, lifeless and not properly To-
cused; his chin is small and retreating;
high cheek bones and a dropping un-
derhp completes the picture.
This morning his eyes were more
than usually staring and he appeared
to be under a severe nervous and men
{ trial was beginning 10 tell on him.
!. few minutes after Mr.. Freeman had
y begun his address to the jury, Mrs.
Sebastian, the defendants mother,
came in and sat down by the side of the
prisoner. Not word was spoken be-
tween them; she simply looked at him
and took his hand in hers AS she did
so he began to tremble all over and
pulled his hand away, twirling his hat
more rapidly than ever. Again she
took his hand, as IL to encourage and
quiet him. He began to tremble vio-
lently and breathing hard, as If trying
to catch his breath, shouted:
"Oh, let me &C" At the same time
he sprang to his feet, saying to the
Judge between short, hard gasps for
breath, IT feel awful. May / go out?"
The judge sent for the sheriff and
the attorneys gathered around the de-
PENDANT who seemed to have no con-
troll over himself: breathing like a
person on the verge of a fit, his eyes
staring from his head while his mother
hysterically shouted, with a stamp of
her foot: "Gave him something. For
Gods sake, give him something"
n As the sheriff took him away, Ghe
sank back into the chair. weeping and
moaning, "Oh, my God; OH, my God"
After a while, in the judges room,
he broke out into tears and was
shortly brought back to the court room.
During the next two hours he sat with
his handkerchief to his eyes, trembling
like an aspen, while around his black,
hfeless eyes. the blood stood congested
in red. ugly blotches. His mother, who
has not spoken ito her son since the
opening of the trial did not return.
In his address to the jury Mr.. Free
man said that the law holds that
man is not responsible If he does not
know ait the time of committing a
crime the enormity of his offense. The
evidence shows that Sebastian knew
at the time what he was doing and
consequently was responsible. why
did he want to kill himself If he did
not know he had done something
wrong? Then his utterances, I've done
at show a murderous intent and that
1t had been in his mind for some time.
The talk about suicide was a bluff. He
did not want to commit 1t, and had
plenty of time If he did. The thing to
be determined is the mans sanity or
insanity at the time of the shooting
and the evidence shows that Sebas-
tian knew fully the nature and quality
of his act and could distinguish right
from wrong. He was a man with
violent and vicious temper and allowed
himself to be swayed by it,"
Mr.. Freeman then took up the wit
nesses one by one and carefully ana
lying the evidence proved that gen.
eral cussedness was more the trouble
with Sebastian than insanity and that
there was nothing whatever to show
him insane. Mr.. Freeman closed by
saying, Sebastian took a woman's life
without cause or provocation. Either
convict him of murder in the first de-
gree or turn him loose.
George II. Stanton made the closing
address for the defendant. He said
there was no greater responsibility
than that assumed by an attorney in
defending a man charged with murder
and the contest between the state,
armed at every point and with unlim-
tied resources. and the defendant
struggling for his life and liberty was
generally an unequal one. 1t is a rule of
law that the defendant cannot be con-
victed unless the jury is satisfied of his
guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and
no man is guilty until so pronounced
by jury of his peers.
This case is the saddest which has
ever come before Cascade county
Jury It involves the investigation of
broken ties of affection; the considera-
ton OF desperate love into madness;
IL means a search into the unexplored
mind world.
Mr. Stanton then reviewed the life
of the defendant. He was premature
fy born; came into the world undevel-
oped unprepared IT is known from
the majority of such births that few
children live, and those that do are
generally stunted and Of unsound
mind, as the brain is the last to be de-
veloped in the embryo. Then came the
wound TO his had and the constantly
recurring pain with loss of memory.
That wound would probably make a
permanent injury 10 the brain. The
defendant married and he and his wife
led a happy life until Dan Frost came
into their lives. alternating her affee-
lions. stealing her away. Then came
the test. His reason was dethroned
and he became a wanderer without
work. afterwards discovering her
drunken. fallen and living in adultery
IRE, he shot her and a sane man