The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-23

firmative replies On behalf of Ben
brook, Mr.. Rogers waived a formal ar
raignment and the prosecution called
County Surveyor Wilkes as the first
witness.
At this point Judge Powers asked for
a separate examination of witnesses.
! The request was readily granted. As
sistant County Attorney Gunter, who
sat some distance away from his col
league, Mr.. Van Colt, stated that the
rule should apply TO both sides. The
defense cheerfully assented. for the very
good reason that it had no witnesses
present, and may introduce none. Ben
brook himself will not testify at the
preliminary, for his attorneys are far
too wise to expose their cards at this
juncture.
After the witnesses had left the room
Mr.. Gunter continued to interject sug-
geStionS at rare intervals, but his in
terest in the case seemed to be merely
desultory In fact, he had asked to be
excused altogether from appearing on
the ground that he has been Benbrook's
attorney.
Surveyor Wilkes Plat.
When Surveyor Wilkes took the stand
Mr.. Van Colt asked him with great
minutae about the plat of the second
floor of the Merchants cafe that he
had drawn at the request of the county
attorney. The plat itself was in evil
dence. it being hung on an easel on the
east side of the court room few feet
from the witness stand. Mr. Wilkes
told of the measurements taken by him
and was proceeding to describe the
location of the furniture when Judge
Powers objected.
The attorney held that it would be in
competent for Wilkes to go into this
unless he had visited the rooms imme-
diately after the killing. Mr.. Van Colt
agreed with Judge Powers, and Mr..
Wilkes gave another trend to his testi-
mony. The dimensions of the rooms.
the size and thickness of the doors and
partitions. height of the ceilings and
other matters of measurement were
gone into in great detail.
On cross-examination Judge Powers
tried hard to get the witness to say
that in making the plat he endeavor-
ed to have his drawing conform to
theory advanced by Chief Hilton as to
the range. of the bullets fired by Ben
brook. Mr.. Wilkes refused TO be drawn
into the trap, and insisted that his plat
was absolutely accurate. The fact that
one or two doors were shown to be
ajar was not a result of premedita-
ton, but was merely a matter of
chance. An hour was consumed in
hearing the testimony of the surveyor.
Steve Keenei Called.
Steve Keene was the next witness.
He was pitiably nervous during almost
the entire time he was on the stand.
There was a haggard look about his
eyes, and his voice was low and husky.
His words at first could not be heard
ten feet away, and he was frequently
requested by the attorneys to raise his
voice.
t., 20
tions, Keene said he saw Benbrook in
room l between 7:30 and 8 o'clock ON
the night of the killing. When pressed
to fix the time more nearly he placed
it at 7:40 or 7:45. The witness said he
went up in response to a message from
Benbrook. and carried his pistol wrap
ped up in a napkin. After he had given
the weapon to Benbrook the latter said:
Burton Morris is over there (meaning
in room 8 across the halD. He has
beel interfering with me. / don't want
to have any trouble. / want you to get
"A policeman and have him taken out of
here"
Not until then. Keene testified. did
he know the two men had had any
difficulty. Here keene described the
pistol. saying it was a SS-calibre Smith
& Wesson. double acting and five
shooter when Benbrook took the
pistol out of my hand he just took the
napkin with it, the witness continued.
His statement about Morris was made
Immediately after he got the gum
Mr. Van Colt sent Bailiff Perry after
the pistol at this point. When it was
brought in Keene refused to positively
identify it as his own. He said the
make and calibre were the same, and
it answered the description perfectly.
but a number of similar weapons had
been made by the Smith & Wesson peo-
pie and he could not be sure in this in
stance.
Asked by Mr. Van Cot if the weapon
was loaded when he carried it up to
Benbrook, the witness declined to be