The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-27
FATE WITH The JURY
TWELVE MEN CAN'T AGREE AS TO
FRANK JONES' GUILT.
ON TRIAL FOR MURDER.
HE SHOT AND KILLED WILLIAM
NEWSOME IN A FROGTowN ROW.

Claimed He Shot in Self Defense.
Said He Slept in n Cemetery the
Night of the HOmicide-surren-
dered to the Police the Morning
After It's Commission.
Frank Jones. alias Frank Pitts, was
placed on trial in the Superior Court yes
terday for the murder of William New
some. At 7:30 O'Clock last night the case
went to the jury and there it is still. An
agreement seems unlikely and mistrial,
it is thought, will probably result
Jones was arraGned and pleaded snot
guilty when court was convened.
He was represented at the tria,
by Twiggs & Oliver, and both
members of the firm were in court
and assisted in the conduct of the case.
Solicitor General w. w. Osborne prose
cuted for the state.
Before the jury was secured forty-four
jurors were placed upon the voir dire and
faced the state and accused. OF this
number the state struck four, the de-
Tense eighteen, and ten went off for
cause. The remaining twelve, who con-
stituted the jury, were Harmon ]. Meyer,
Madrid Cox, George Tuten, James c.
Tyson, Ernest E. Davis, j. Wheeler
Wilson, Benjamin Cashin, Thomas P.
Reynolds, c. A. Munster, James B. Nd
Donald. T. ]. Murphy and John Lovett.
Cashin, one of the jurors, is negro.
The first witnessed placed /on the stand
by the solicitor general was Dr. John G.
Keller coroner of the county. DR.. Keller
testified that he had made an examina-
ton of the body of William Newsome
soon after the commission of the homi-
cide and that death had resulted from
a gunshot wound in the heart.
BY the evidence of Joseph Johnson and
Dan Williams the state proved that Jones
was the man who had done the shooting.
| These witnesses testified that they had
seen William Newsome and his brother,
| Jarrett Newsorne, standing near the cor
| ner of West Broad and Minis streets on
the night of May %, and observed that
| both the brothers appeared to have been
wounded. They went across the street to
investigate and found that the men had
been seriously cut with a razor, Jarrett
| NeWsome, the more severely. The broth
| ers had explained that they had had
| difficulty which had ended in their being
cut.
Williams said that William Newsome
| told him that the man who had cut him
| had wrenched a razor from his hand and
| that otherwise the cutting ARRAY would
| have ended differently. This was state
| ment he had not made at the coroner's
| inquest, and counsel for the defense made
| good use of it in their arguments to show
| that in the ARRAY which had first occurr-
| ed the Newsome boys had been the ag-
| greSsors and that Jones had acted in self
| defense.
johnson and Williams said that while
they were talking to the Newsome boys,
they had suddenly observed the defend
ant creeping up on them. He walked
close up to The Kid" said Johnson re-
ferring to William Newsome, ''and fred
| twice. He didn't say a word. After he
shot he ran up Huntingdon street" AS
| to shooting, Johnson and Williams both
| told the same story.
Jarrett Newsome, the brother of the
! dead man, was the principal and most
| important witness for the state In sub
| stance his evidence was that he and his
brother had met the defendant and Willie
| Wardlaw on the night of the killing. New
some said that Wardlaw wanted to come
| with him and his brother and that Jones
| didn't want this to happen. A quarrel
| had arisen, that soon developed into
fight.
The witness said that the defendant
| had cursed his brother foully and that
| his brother wanted to jump on him at
| that time. 81 pulled my brother back
| and told him there was no use for that"
| Jones pulled out his razor then and
| cut my brother across the shoulder. As
soon as l saw the razor l rushed in at
the man. He cut me a cash on the left
arm. was making at him with my
knife then. My brother had gone at
that time. The prisoner then cut me
again. l started to run and he hit me
with a brick bottle. He ran after
US about fifteen yards, and then turned
| back.
| I'VE went to Huntingdon street and l
was bleeding so some people stopped me.
| In about eight or ten minutes the man
came back. He fired twice at me and
my brother. He didn't say anything be-
fore he fired. 1 don't know If my broth
er had anything in his hand or not
had my knife in my hand then, but it
was shut. The man didn't say anything
before he shot and we didn't say any
! thing. We saw him just before he fired.
/ ran on a stoop, but my brother didn't
! have time to get out of the way. All
of us had been drinking. 1 didn't know
the man who did the shooting before that
night
| SHdElcS OdNlS IeSllneO LudI ne ndQ seen
| four men standing near the corner of
West Broad and Minis streets on the
night of the homicide, and after a little
while had observed another man running
towards them Two other men ran up
behind the man who was in front AS the
man in front reached the four, the shots
| were fired
This concluded the evidence for the
| state and the defendant was placed on
the stand by his counsel to make a state
nent in his own behalf II was a long
one, but Jones kept II we'll connected and
managed to make out a very creditable
case OF self-defense or justifiable homi-
| eide.
| He said that he and Willie Wardlaw
had started out together on the night of
the killing and at the corner of Factory
and Stewart street had met the two New
some boys. He didn't know them. but
they knew the boy who was with him
and spoke to him.
The trouble began almost immediately
The Newsome boys wanted Wardlaw 10
go with them to disorderly house in
the neighborhood, kept by Clara King.
and Jones didn't want to let Wardiaw GO.
They insisted and he insisted and the
party finally compromised by going into
a nearby saloon and getting some drinks
| They had a number and by the time thew
came out Wardlaw was considerably The
worse for wear. Jones said he advised
u