The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-19
FORMING A DEFENSE
PRISONERS COUNSEL TRYING TO
TEAR DOWN STATES CASE
IN POTTER MURDER TRIAL.
TESTIMONY OF IMPORTANT WIT
NESsES AT VARIANCE.

Home Only 40 Minutes-Were Gone
Two Hours or MOre-Grand Jurors
Testify That Alleged Eye witness
Did Not Testify That She Saw Any
thing when Before Their Body.
Defense Proved That the Elder
Potter Returned to savannah
shortly After IL O'Clock on the
Day of the Murder-Party of Hunt
ers Tell of Their Trip at Scene of
Crime on Thursday PreviOus-POt-
ter's shoes in Evidence.
The Superior Court room was again
crowded during the trial of the Potter
case yesterday. The feature of the
day was the failure of the defense to
prove that the Potters were absent
from the Bedford house but forty-five
minutes and to show that the tracks
made at the scene of the crime and in
dicated on the diagram drawn by Dep
uty Sheriff Westcott. as those OF tie
two Potters, were in reality made by
hunters on the Thursday previous to
the killing of Bourquin and the old
negro.
The court being unable to obtain
material witness for the defense. John
Harris, colored, who lives at Biscuit
Hill. a recess was taken until this
morning. The witness, on leaving the
Court House the day before, announced
that he didn't intend to wait any long
er, and would not be back on the next
day. The sheriff's deputies were noti-
fed and went at once to the home of
the witness. Not finding him there,
they left word for him to come imme-
diately to the Court House. This he
did not do and the court last night
instructed the sheriff to have the wit
ness in court this morning, if he were
alive. Solicitor Osborne suggested
that a warrant be sworn out for the
witness, but to this Judge Twiggs OBJ
jected, saying that he did not wish any
proceedings quasi-criminal sworn out
against any one who was testifying in
behalf of the defense. Judge Barrow
instructed the sheriff to use the whole
force of deputies, if necessary, in pro-
curing the witness.
Did Not MateriaIIxe.
The proof which the defense pro-
posed to produce in substantiation of
its position, as. indicated in the open
ing remarks by Judge Twiggs to the
jury, that the Potters were absent from
the Bedford house but forty-five min
utes did not materialize during the
day, the three witnesses examined Civ
ing the time as from two to two and a
half hours. These witnesses were the
Bodifords. Their testimony was in the
main very similar, but on several
points they differed.
Before the Bodifords were placed on
the stand the four grand jurors who
were called by the solicitor general to
relate the conflicting statements of
father and son before the grand jury
were placed on the stand, for the pur-
pose of proving that old Candace KEEL
ly, the negro woman who testified the
day before that she had seen Potter kill
Bourquin. did not state to the grand
jury that she had seen the shooting.
These grand Jurors said that the old
woman neither stated nor denied that
she had seen the shooting, and was
not Intercepted by the solicitor on
that point.
The jurors stated that the old woman
had told them that she heard the shots.
and indicated the interim between
them; that she was near the railroad
gathering wood, and that she ran when
she heard the shots fired. The solicit
grand jurors. The question of the eve
witness was touched upon again at the
trial, when a witness testified that on
an occasion when he and Judge TwIggs
Intercepted Candace's husband, he
said that his wife had told him that
had she looked up. she could have seen
the killing, but that, as a matter of
TACT, she fell on her face when the first
shot was fired. and so remained until
firing
ran.
when Potter Came to Bodiford,s.
AT the conclusion of the testimony
OF the grand jurors, H. T. Bedford.
who had on the day before begun his
testimony for the defense, was again
placed on the stand. He told of the
Potters coming to his home on the
morning of the murder. He said that
he and his wife and his brother were
seated at the breakfast table, when the
elder Potter walked up to the window
and spoke to them. In answer to
questions put to him by Judge Twiggs,
the witness testified. in substance.
that aftep greeting them, Potter
asked him If he wanted to go hunt
ing. The witness replied that he told
him he could not go because his baby
was sick.
On cross-examination Bedford was
asked If, before he had an opportunity
OF replying, Mrs. Bedford had not
interposed an objection, saying that
he should not go hunting on Sunday.
He could recall no such interposition
on the part of his wife.
The witness said that it was his
opinion that this conversation took
place some time between s and Q
o'clock. He said that Potter asked
him to loan him his gun, and that he
got II and gave it to him. This gun
he said he had bought from Willie
Farrell some twelve years before, the
information being elected on cross-ex-
animation by the solicitor. He stated.
as brought out on the day before in
the examination of Willie Jones. and
indicated in the Morning News, that
Farrell was his wifes second husband,
her first husband being a Jones; and
that Farrell was killed by Gugie
Bourquin.
Returned About II O'clock.
The witness stated that the father
borrowed the gun for Swayne Potter.
He said that the two men remained
at the house short while and then
left. saying that they were going fox
hunting. He could not tell In what di-
rection they went. They returned later,
and remained at ths.s house a short
while, and shortly after they left the
1880 o'clock train went down. The
witness said that young Potter pro-
ceded his father to town, taking with
him red hound. He saw no dogs with
Potter
The cross-examination by the solicit
tor was directed toward proving that
Potter and his son were in a hurry
20 get back 70 town, when they re-