The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-12
GRUVER'S TRIAL FOR MURDER.
HE SAYS HE CUT HENRY VOIGHT
IN SELF-DEFENsE.

Which the State Deduced the The
DRY of Murder, and the Defense
That of JustiicntiOn-It Was
Question as to Who Began the Diff
ficuIty-Gruver Surrounded During
the Trial by Members of His FamI-
ly-The Jury Had Come Nowhere
Near an Agreement at Midnight
and Court Adjourned Until This
Morning.
The fate Of George Gruver, the young
carpenter charged with the murder of
| Henry Voight the night of Oct. 6, is in
the hands of the jury. The trial occu-
pied the entire day in the superior court
yesterday, and as the jury was nowhere
near an agreement at midnight, court ad-
| journed until this morning.
The trial was perhaps the most inter-
esting that has taken place in months
The court room was crowded from the
beginning of the days session until mid
night, and at times there were in the gal
leries and on the court room floor from
| 500 to 600 interested spectators.
The defendant sat beside his attorney,
Mr.. George w. Owens, with his father at
his right hand, and around him sat his
mother, brothers and sisters, some of them
little tots, who could never have been
made to comprehend the seriousness of
the situation with which their brother
was confronted. There We're also other
| relatives, and with them she who was to
have become his wife-so it is saba
bright, attractive woman, with the sorrow
of the occasion written upon her features,
and with it all she has stood nobly by
him, visiting him at the Jail, and buoying
up and Frightening his hopes in the hour
of greatest tribulatiou
| Such were his surroundings as ne faced
| the court. and heard his arraignment
| upon the charge of having murdered
Henry Voight. These were the family and
! friends TO whom so much sorrow was
| brought by one intoxication, which led to
crime There was sympathy, much SYM
pathy for those in distress, but there vas
Justice to be done, and law to be requited.
Solicitor General Osborne and Mr. Ow-
ems had little trouble in securing a jury
only three panels being called for them
to select from. The defense struck twelve
and the state six, neither side exhaust
ing their allotted number of strikes and
one went off for cause The following
intelligent jury was selected. s. McA
White, Thomas Hunter w w. Doty. T.
Arthur Ward, George Fawcett Godin G.
Howard, a. II. Lane. J. Pearce Wheless,
Charles M Gibbs Albert Howarth, Pat
rick Barrett and Frank r. Walsh.
There were ten witnesses sworn, sew
eral of them for the defense, and the tes-
timony in some points was rather conflict
ing. On the night of Oct. 6, 1896, Gruver,
who had been drinking some around the
city, went down to Voights place at East
Broad and Liberty streets, and called for
Mamie Lane, ne having heard she wanted
10 see him. Weight and Gruver had some
words in the restaurant, this being the be-
ginning of the difficulty
Fifteen or twenty minutes later Gruver
went into Mullers barroom which is right
next to Noight's restaurant, and while he
was In there Weight came in. Up to this
point there was very little variance be-
tween the state and the defense 1t is
said Voight took Gruver to task for ours
ing In his place, and a once set upon him
and attacked him. A fight ensued, Voight
striking Gruver, and the fighting CON
tinued, GruVer receding through the door
between the bar and the grocery into the
grocery store. There, according to the de-
Tense, Weight caught Gruver around the
neck cursing him, and being a big power
full fellow threw him right down to the
floor. Gruver drew his pocket knife and
began cutting to get away from him, and
in so doing inflicted the wound that was
mortal.
The state took entirely different view
and had testimony from Voights friends
in support of it. 1t was held that Grower
was the first to attack Voight when the
latter came into the barroom that Voight
did not throw him down, and that as soon
as Grower began the attack he drew from
his pocket this sharp knife and inflicted
the mortal wound. The state insisted that
the cutting began in the barroom before
the grocery was reached, and produced
| fas tirooY To = ,a
blood on the door in support of this theory.
The defense, however, denied this en-
phatcally and said this was only a pre-
tense on the part of some of the witnesses
intended to put the defendants case in a
bad light. The state held taking all the
facts into consideration. that Gruver
had gone there for the purpose of killing
Weight, and that it was, therefore, a case
of murder.
In his statement Gruver said that Voight
first attacked him, that he caught him
by the throat, cursing him and throwing
him down as he did So and that he pulled
out his pocketknife and began cutting
simply for the purpose of getting away
from Voight, as he thought he was going
to kill him. Voights wounds showed that
Gruver had cut rather wildly, one of them
being on the left wrist, another on The
right arm and the third, which resulted In
his bleeding to death, being on his thign
the femoral artery being severed.
MIR. Owens made a brief but strong and
earnest argument in behalf of his clien-
putting forth the theory OF justification
and self defense Solicitor General Os.
borne made a most able summing up Of
the case for the state, holding to the the.
DRY Of murder. He was warmly comO,i-
mented on his strong argument by many
of those who listened to him with inter-
est. Judge Falligant charged the jury
shortly after o'clock, and he and the
court officers remained on hand until mid
night waiting to hear from it.
1t was thought at one time the jury
would agree, as when inquiry was made
the jury sent down a request that the court
wait for a short time. But u O'Clock
came. and, as the jury was no nearer an
agreement, the court officials went home
and will wait until court convenes this
morning for the result
Those who heard the evidence and ar
guments in the case express the belief that
the jury will not convict Gruver of the
crime with which he is charged, but they