Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-12-15
EXAMINING TRIAL OF RICHARD CONVERSE, WHO IS CHARGED WITH
 THE MURDER OF S. fi. CHASER, COLORED. Before Judge Garrett---The Evi- dence Casts Shadows of
 Doubt.
5. N. CHASER, COLORED.

Thursday afternoon before Judge J. H. Garrett. preliminary bearing was given Richard Converse, coiored, i, who is charged with the murder of $. Nj. teaser, colored. The state was represented by Prosecuting Attor- ney Sorrells. The prisoner was rep resented by attorneys II. k. C. Foster and Van H. Williams. The court Of Judge Garrett Iesembled one mass of people; there was at least 300 0colo- red pee pie present anxiously await ing the result of the trial. Promptly at 2:30 the examination began by the Prosecuting Attorney interro- gating Mrs. $. Nj. Ceaser, wife of the murdered man. She testified in substance as folloes:
 That on the night of the murder, Friday, Decem ger $, she and her lit tie daughter Myrtle went a short distance to a fire and that when they returned, Ceaser was in his store. The child remained in the store with her father. while she went to the'r residence in the back of the store to put the baby to sleep. She had not been gone long, so she averred, when she heard her little daughter calling to her, say ing Mamma, Papa has fell" Upon l this she went into the store, got the lamp and went to the rear, calling to her husband, but received no re- sponse. She found him struggling near he coal oil can and then teie. phoned for Dr. Sell, who came im- n ediately. She thep got some cam phor from n neighbor. Ceaser was carried into his home and his wounds dressed. Bruises were dis covered above the eyes and q gash in the back of tue head. She testi- fed further that the ax was stand ing up by some barrels and plunder in the rear of the store here Ceaser fell. The ak was on backwards. Converse, the prisoner charged
 with tue crime, she never saw, so she testified. until her husband while across the street, saying tha Converse was good butcher and attended strictly to his own busi- ness. She said further that her lit-
 tie girl always told the same story about it, that "after papa fell col ored man came into the store-a man with a moustache and a suit hat on-and was rubbing Ceaser's head.'
 The axe with which the deed was done was then placed befor the wit ness. She could not recognized it The axe was on "baek wards' said Mrs. Ceaser. Our life was happy one. Ceaser never put his money in the bank. 1 don't know how much money found on his person after his death, ] only know I found enough to pay his debts. The next 0dS btf OhOAhCA klc AiNCS England. I telephone him to come. tnok small amounts out of Ceaser's pockets, about 75 cents. The key to the store was found in the pockets of Ceaser's garments after Ceaser was buried, by the mother of Mrs Ceaser.
 The next witness was the little girl whose testimony in substance
 WAS, that Converse did not have the right kind of hat on and that he was not tieshy enough, hence she said "He is not the man." She was the only eye witness to the cold blooded essasin's work.
 MT. M. q. Morris testified that there was an impossibility, physical ly, for the blood to have been on the axe where the axe was, and to where Ceaser was lying.
 Other witness testified in the same strain. All that has been proven so