The herald., 1897-06-20
The Jury Out for Only Five
Minutes
BRIDGET WILSON'S WILL
n SCENE IN THE WALTER TAY-
LOB CASE
Uxrs Cokahnour Convicted Of Arson.
A Batch Of Supreme Court De-
cisions-A New Rule

There 10 one little family in the city
today that for the time being is fully
and completely happy. That is only an
safe one. for the family referred to is
that Of Frank u. Lowry, his wife and
child. He has emerged from perilous
position, and after being tried twice he
has been finally acquitted of the charge
" embezzlement preferred against him.
Messrs. Variel and Meserve both made
good arguments, but that made by Mr..
Meserve was excellent as a bit Of forensic
argument In closing, Mr.. McComas
was not at his best. He conceded that
he was somewhat handicapped in pros
ecuting a case of such serious import
ance against man whom he had known
so we'll as the defendant, but he pro-
posed to do his duty in the premises.
Probably on that account some of his
remarks were especially vitriolic.
The Instructions of the court to- the
jury were in the nature of a surprise.
The instructions of the prosecution were
of the sterotyped character, but some
of those prepared by the defense and ad-
IullleQ anu Icdu WCtS GAli ChiCiJ LuS Sol
able to the defendant. The following
instruction of the court, too, was es-
pecially favorable:
"It Is a presumption of law. though
disputable one, that every official duty
of any public officer has been regularly
performed at the time required by law,
and If no evidence has been given to the
contrary, sufficient to remove this pre-
t1,.
prevail. So, in this case, 1t is to be pre-
sumed that the county clerk regularly
paid over to the county treasurer, on the
first Monday Of each month, all moneys
received by him for fees during the pre-
ceding month, unless there is evidence
given before you sufficient to show be-
yond reasonable doubt, that for the
months of October and November, 1894,
in question here, he did not so pay over
such money, or that he failed to so pay
over some part thereof
I'm the absence of such evidence you
must presume all such fee money was so
paid to the county treasurer. In that
event. the money paid out by Ward, the
county clerk. for ballot paper, stamps,
etc, for which he obtained allowances
from the county board, would be due
said Ward personally, and would, when
received OH such allowances, be the pri-
vate money of said Ward, and If the de-
fendant received from the county treas
urer the money due on the warrants is
sued for such allowances. then such
money, when so received by him. would
be the property of said Ward, and not
the property of Los Angeles county. The
defendant, therefore, in case the facts
1o q hoy tof fad ba fro ,d,,-
lently appropriate this money to his own
use, would not be guilty Of the offense
here charged against him, for the rea-
son that the money embezzled would not
be the property of Los Angeles county,
as charged In the indictment, but would
be the property of Ward, and there
would be a variance between the charge
and the proof If, therefore, you find
the facts involved in the case to be
against the defendant, then your ver-
dict should be that the defendant is
not guilty, by reason of variance be-
tween the indictment and the proof"
When the jury retired Mrs Lowry and
her boy were close by the husband and
father. Anxiety, spread over a long
period of time, has marked the face of
Mrs. Lowry. During the arguments she
sat quiescent, shading her face as if
from the sun, but really to prevent the
play of feature to pass unnoticed. But
when the twelve men passed out her
mental perturbation was apparent,
though she strove to maintain her COM
posure.
Only five minutes, and then the knock
on the door intimated that the jury
sought to return. mot guilty"-that
was the verdict, and the radiance that
illumined at least two faces in court
told of the weight that had been remov-
ed. The jury could not have even
scanned the instructions or debated the
case, for they were absent just long
enough to take one ballot and write out
the verdict.