El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-13


the court or the counsel.
| The court finally gave it's decision al
| follows: To charge on the first degree
only would compel the court to pass or
the meaning and value of all the facts
presented in evidence. If, as seems
certain, the facts are susceptible Of
more than one construction, leading to
more than one possible result as to de-
gree, the jury must decide as to those
facts, and it is not within the province
of the court. No matter what the
court or the counsel or the people here
assembled may think about the facts
SUI omitted, the jury must be the judge
of facts, The court will submit the
three degrees of murder to the jury.
ARGUMENTS BEGUN.
The jury was then brought in and
arguments by counsel were begun.
MIR. Barnes. district attorney, open
ed for the prosecution. He laid great
stress on the spot of blood, referring to
it as the central point in the case. He
led up through the chain of circum-
stantial evidence. saying that while
one or a few condolences might be ex-
planned, the whole chain was only to
be explained on the one hypothesis,
Fountain child. Mr.. Barnes spoke un-
til the room recess. His
speech was rather fowery, and
the figures of speech and quotations
from the Pickwick papers probably
went over the heads of the jury. The
interpreter had hard time TO translate
some of the fancy work, and sometime s
the advocate had to repeat his express
sions. In speaking of Mrs. Lee, the
mother of one of the defendants, who
had testified as to Lee alibi. he remark
ed that she but laid "a wreath of ma
ternal duty on the altar of maternal
love-" This vas too much for the in
terpreter, and couuse.. lad to explain.
He later came back to it and impressed
the idea about the wreath upon the
jury. MIR. Barnes went over the evil
dence IN the case very fully.
FERGUSsoN'S SPEECH.
In the afternoon Mr.. Ferguson be-
gan for the defense. He said he would
go over the case very fully, and that
Judge Fall might not speak at all or
only touch on certain points that be
might overlook. He took up the wit
nesses for the prosecution. one after the
other and tried to discredit them. Mr..
FERGUSON s style is one that compels
attention. He held the interest of the
jury and of the audience very closely
from the beginning to the end of his
jury as to the individuals. and once
called Juror Chaves by name.
He said Maxwell could not have
been employed as a detective, and ask
ed the jury merely TO look at the man
and consider the facts to substantiate
his statement. Money was so pleati-
full that Maxwell was offered $1,000 to
get evidence that would convict 1.-THE
murderer of Col. Fountain Could
IT. hat 4 @f@
meant? And could anyone doubt that
Maxwell was paid to testify
and get others to testify against these
defendants? The prosecution had uu-
limited money, they had Mr.. Garrett,
they had a Pinkertoo detective, they
had all the machinery of the territory
at work to convict these men and was
it likely that they would have en- ploy-
ed the man Maxwell as "detective"?
Counsel laid much stress on
the alleged statement o Maxwell
"These boys could not be convicted,
for he saw them at the ranch on the
c ay OF the disappearrnce.n
Mr.. Ferguson then said that he
would consider the evidence introduce
ed by the prosecution just as if no evil
depce at all had beentintroduced by the
defense. He would show up the weak
ness of the case against the defendants
you are trying these men for the kill
ing OF little boy" said he. But you
cannot connect the blood spot with the |
Fountain boy. There is not any proof |
that it was human blood.'' He spoke |
about the prosecutions expert, swho |
said that no expert could be sure the |
horse, a coyote, dog, or
, beef, and thereby strengthened our
case so that we discharged many of our |
witnesses and all our doctors.' ''To |
convict in this case you have got to be
sure that that flood was the blood of
the boy Fou ltain.''
with money, power, political
animus, and personal enmity against
the defendants, see how little case
they have made.'' Albert J. Fountain,
the soul of honor, would not lend him
self to the work of Llewellyn and |
and testified that to the |
best of his knowledge and belief the |
tracks of boy around the camp fire |
we're those of his little brother and
we're naturally made.
"You must be certain not only that |
show that these defend
ants committed a crime at the place |
Ind time charged in the Indictment,
)ut that crime was committed: does |
my of the evidence submitted show
hat beyond reasonable doubt?"
The blood spot, said counsel, was rot
ound until the ninth or perhaps even
he twelfth of February. Why could |
t not have got there in some othe r
way? Albert Fountain examined the
racks of the buggy and the horses with
minute care, so that he was able 10
wear that they we're thus and SO in
treat detail, but he swore that he saw
10 blood spot, although it was close t.,
he wheel tracks at the point where
he buggy turned out of the road. The
circumstances seem to show Innocence
q we'll as oui1t Wbu uos th,no - |