North Park union., 1901-03-29
C0R0NER'S INQUEST OVER
THE BODY OF JOHN PRICE
Body Lying In City Hall, Walden, March 23rd,
1901. Present, Walter Cough, Coroner,
And D. w. Clampitt, Deputy
Sheriff, of Larimer 5a@
County.

The following jurors were duly
summoned and sworn:
S. S. Brownlee, n. w. Mcdonald,
Collin Davis, Henry Seymour, o. S.
Tibbetts, and Hugh Griffith.
I'VE shall only give brief outline
of the evidence presented to the jury.
James Howell; seventeen years old
who was on the stage at the time of
the shooting, stated that Mr.. Price
came on horse back, meeting the stage
in the neck of the Park and when
within fifty or sixty feet of the stage
ne took off his right mitten put it in
his pocket and threw both legs on the
right side of his horse and jumped off
on the right side, and when the stage
was within about Is feet of Price
team and horse stopped. When Price
drew off his right mitten, King who
was driving the stage handed the lines
to young Howell and took hold OF his
gun. AT about this instant (and on
that point the evidence was not clear
Price said. aWhat in hell is the mat
ter with you now?" or some such re
mark. rs near as witness could remem-
her 1t, and neither said another word;
almost instantly the gun in the hands
of King was fired Price apparently
trying to dodge behind his horse. At
the moment of firing the gun, accord
ing to young Howelrs recollection,
Price IVES in the trail in front of the
near stage horse or tritle to the
left of the horse rs they went toward
Mountain Home. Immediately King
took the lines and drove on, not
touching the body as they passed,
nor driving out of the trail, as it had
fallen on the back in the snow to tie
left so to be out of reach of the sled.
On this point NJ j. Capron, under
taker, and W. ID. Beckwith, j. p, who
were authorized to take possession of
the body, both stated in their testi-
mony that the feet of the dead man
were from two and half to three
feet from the trail and in the snow
almost up to the knees, that it had
fallen on the back directly from the
trail, and had apparently not been
disturbed by anyone after il had fal-
len. These are the main facts as to
the manner Of the killing. A num-
ber of questions were put to the wit
nesses by members of the jury, most
all of which tended to show that
King had reasonable ground to fear
his own life was in danger or that
when Price put his hand in his coat
pocket he was reaching for gun
All the evidence that directly touched
that point showed that the only weap-
on he had on his person was small
two -bladed knife, which was found by
the undertaken in his right pants
pocket. &
The coroner excluded all bystand-
ers from the ball when the evidence
was closed at about ten o'clock Satur-
day night, when he, read the jury
the section Of law governing their de-
cision and left them to deliberate
In a short time they agreed on YER
dict and after the formal part closed
as follows:
That John Price came to his death
at the hands of N. s. King, by Win
chester A5-7n rifle, on the Goth day
of March, 1901, "without felonious
intent"
J. Il. P. McCallum appeared as
counsel for tie state and II. T. stur-
devant represented N. S. King, who
was In court during the inquest but
the coroner refused to allow the attor-
ney to cross examine the state wit
nesses.
X. J. MacCalum wrote the testi-
monJ of tie witnesses, which was
signed by them aud token IN Charge
by the coroner. lie and sheriff Clam
pit returned by stage to Fort Collins
Monday morning.