Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-12-03

pie Of. Tucker County, Declare
the Jury Are Fair Men. and That
an Honest Verdict is Assured.
Defense Moved to Dismiss the
Entire Panel, Alleging That the
Commissioners Had Drawn Them
Improperly The Motion Over
ruled and Excepted To-The Wit
nesses Sworn and Excluded--Tak-
ing of Testimony Begun.
Special to the Register
Parsons, w. Va, December 2.-The
twelve men who compose the jury that
holds the fate of Robert w. Eastman
In their keeping are A. E. Teter, J. w.
Lands, George w. Upton, d. j. Nestor,
Andrew P. Shaffer, John Raese, J. D.
Strauderman, Albert t. Miller, John
M. Cooper, Marcellus Corder, Luther
Williams and 1. w. Wilmott.
They are said to be good and honest
men, and those who are familiar with
the Tucker county people are congratu-
lating counsel on each side for having
secured SO fair jury
Court had no sooner opened this
morning that Mr.. F. M. Reynolds, one
of the attorneys for the defense, chal-
lenged the entire array of jurors and
moved to quash the whole panel be-
cause it was alleged to have been lille
gally drawn, two of the jury commits
sioners having done the drawing, it
was said, before the third was ap-
pointed.
Judge Holt overruled the motion,
and the defendant excepted.
The attorneys then proceeded to
strike the jury.
The witnesses for both State and
prisoner were sworn and excluded, and
at exactly ten O'Clock this morning the
trial commenced.
The number in attendance to-day
was greater than at any time hereto
fore, the witnesses alone constituting
crowd sufficient to fill the court room.
There are witnesses from every
where-from Randolph county, from
Webster county, from Cumberland,
Md, and from far off Nova Scotia, Hon.
J. T. Hoke, the present consul to that
country, having arrived here, in
obedience to summons, at noon to-
day.
Hon. John J. Davis conducted the
examination of the witnesses on the
part of the State to-day, and Hon.
Wood Daily on the part of the defense
It is an appropriate arrangement for
these two legal gladiators have been at
each other hammer and tongs ever
since the day, last week, when Mr..
Daily took occasion to indulge in some
Brannon in the prohibition case lately
before the Supreme Court OF Appeals,
and said, among other things, that por-
tons of that opinion were imbecile and
not judicial, and that any child would
know better.
Mr.. Davis, in reply, said this was not
the time nor the place to discuss the
relative merits Of the two opinions,
which had been delivered in that pro-
ceeding, and the occasion did not call
for any defense at his hands Of Judge
Brannon; but he would say that the
reputation of Judge Brannon for learn
ing and ability, and his clear and lucid
statement of the law, in his opinion,
added lustre to his reputation as jur-
list which would not suffer in the esti-
nation of the profession by compar-
ison with that of the judge, who, in a
somewhat nervous and sensational
opinion, differed with hin; that Judge
Brannon could let the two opinions go
into the judicial history of the State
with the perfect assurance that the i'm
partial Judgment of the bar would APP
prove and confirm his conclusions.
DR.. ]. w. Johnson, of Davis, had the
distinction of being the first witness
called to the stand in the case He
was called to see Frank E. Thompson
ct Parsons on the evening the 18th of
last March, found he had been shot
through the left forearm and the left
thigh and in the abdomen, the bullet
entering near the naval, taking a
downward course, passing clear
through the body and lodging IN the
muscles of 1.-THE back, from whence it
was extracted.
1t passed through the bowels and
possibly the kidney. This is the wound
that, in witnesses opinion, produced
Frank Thompson's death in Cumber-
land, the following Cay, where he had
been removed for the purpose of an
operation in the hope Of saving his
life.
DR.. c. r. .Foutch, of Parsons, and DR..
Gerstell, of Cumberland. told practically
the same story each in his own way, but
substantially corroborating the statements
of DR.. Johnson.
W. r. Davis is superintendent of the
Davis Coal & Coke Company mines at
Thomas, but lived in Davis. Eastman
was in the employ of the same company,
as surveyor of coal and timber land.
Davis had hunted with him and worked
with him. and knew him intimately. He
had heard Eastman express bitter feel
ings against the Thompsons, and say,
last Christmas, that he would get even
with them. Eastman always carried a
gum sometimes in his hip pocket, some
times in his inside coat pocket Eastman
told the witness that he carried it in his
right coat pocket so he could get at it
and use it quicker there if he should need
to use it,
Howard Clark heard Eastman say,
going from Parsons to Davis, on the train.
some time before the shooting, that he