Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-06-15
LOCKE INDICATED
Convincing Testimony Produced
Showing That Fred L. Merrill
Died By His Own Hand.
ACCUSED NOW A FREE MAN
judge McFie Declares That Deceased Com.
mitted Suicide and the Defendant Is
Innocent Of the Crime Charged
Against Him.

Walter E. Locke is a free man, and,
what is equally as agreeable to him, he
has been proven innocent of numbering
This morning at 10 o'clock the hearing
in the habeas corpus proceedings
brought in behalf of the defendant
were resumed before Judge McFie. Dis
trict Attorney Gortner cross-examined
Locke, who told a straightforward and
clear story of his doings and where
abouts on the evening that Merrill came
to his death. One significant fact was
brought out in the cross-eXamination.
Ten or twelve days before Merrill COM
mitted suicide, Locke surprised him
while writing a letter or statement.
When Merrill saw Locke, Merrill quick
ly grasped the papers and placed them
in his pocket. Locke also found that
Merrill had taken a double-barreled
shotgun out of another room and loaded
it. The gun was always unloaded when
in the house, and kept in another room.
The cross-examination of Locke closed
the taking of testimony in the case.
District Attorney Gortner waived the
opening argument. Before Hon. T. B.
Catron and A.. B. Renehan, the attor-
neys for the defense, could reply, Judge
McFie stated that any argument on the
part of counsel could not change his
opinion, although he did not want to
deprive them of their privilege. He said
that he had listened attentively to the
evidence, and was very much interested
in disclosures made, because there was
supposed to be some mystery connected
with the case. He did rot want any de-
PENDANT to escape the process of the
| court, and his disposition was to hold
a defendant whenever there was any
reasonable ground that a crime had
been committed. He paid special atten-
ton to the medical evidence for the de-
Tense, which was very thorough, and
differing in that respect from the medi-
cal evidence of the prosecution, which
did not lay claim to being very thor
ough. There was nothing absolutely
certain about the medical testimony Of
ing learned that there really was some
difference of opinion among the physi-
clans who first examined Merrill, deter
mined to have the body exhumed, as
+lo lool o1o~o oo,,J5 4o1I 1,1,o+ho, Nfor
| rill had died Of his own hand or by the
hand of anybody else. The physicians
for the defense had shown without a
shadow of doubt the hole made by the
bullet which caused Merrill's death;
! they had proved that the skull could
not have been fractured in the man
ner hat it was except by IN explosion
of powder in the head, and that the
| weapon must have been held closely
| against the head. A person committing
murder as a rule does not hold the
weapon so close to the head, but a sui
eide often does.
The expert testimony on handwriting
| also proved that the statement Of Mer-
| rill was written by Merrill and not by
Locke. Merrill wrote without regard tc
rules of capitalization or grammar, diff.
fering in that characteristic from thai
of Locke. The final signature Erred"
while differing from the body of the
statement, shows that Merrill wrote
just before committing the deed, an6
while he was intoxicated.
While the expert testimony differed ir
several minor details, there is no GROUND
for entertaining SO serious a charge az
that of murder, said Judge McFie. One
witness heard the shot which ended
Merrill's life before 5 o'clock, and it il
positively proven by three reliable wit.
nesses hat Locke was in the postoffice
after s o'clock, and could not possibly
have been home when the shot wa
fired. Murder is therefore out of the
question, and the witness can not b.
the evidence is clear that suicide wa!
committed, and the prisoner is there
fore discharged from custody, said tn,
court.
Judge McFie said that the circum'
stances surrounding the East We're such
as to excite suspicion. There was thu
change of clothing, the fact of the pis
toll belonging to Locke, the manner il
which it was found, and the careful
manner in which the body seemed t
have been arranged upon the bed, which
all justified the prosecution in adopting
the theory of murder. Even at the pre-.
liminary hearing things were not salts.
factorily explained, and doubts not dis.
PEELED as they were at this hearing, thu
resemblance of the handwriting in thu
statement in some particulars to that
of Locke, as thought It first, being II
itself a very suspicious circumstance
Locke had been a resident in this city
for twenty years, and If any evidence
should develop in the future, the court
would be willing to have 1t heard an6
hold him to nswer The Judge compli.
mented counsel, saying that both sides
presented their case ably and well. He
then formally discharged Locke from
o,,sknlry