The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-11
The First Verdict of the Kind Rem
dered I'm Marion County for
Fourteen Years.
C0PENHAvER'S CRIME RECALLED
PECULIARLY ATROCIOUS WAS HIS
MURDER OF HIS WIFE.
Prosecutor Ruc1Selshaus Talks of the
Verdict-Other Murders that Called
for Death Penalty.

Ora Copenhaver, self-confessed wife muir
derer, was found guilty of murder in the
first degree and sentenced to suffer death
by the jury selected to try him in the Grim
inal Court at o'clock last night. The case
was closed by the instruction to the jury Of
Judge Afford at 4:30 o'clock, and the court
officials, lawyers and other persons inter-
ested in the outcome of the case went to
their homes for supper and were summoned
again by the bailiff, who had been informed
by the jury at $50 o'clock that a verdict
had been agreed upon and they were ready
to report.
At o'clock Copenhaver was brought
from the county Jail by Deputy Sheriff
Conner handcuffed and still bearing that
unconcerned look that has characterized
his appearance in court since the beginning
of the trial Monday morning. Judge AL
ford and Prosecutor Ruckelshaus having
taken their places in the court the jury
filed in. and. having seated themselves. re-
piled to the question of Judge Afford as to
whether they had agreed upon the verdict
in the affirmative. When the court directed
the foreman of the jury Albert Wetherlee,
to submit the report the silence in the court
was only disturbed by the anxiety of the
small crowd of fifteen or twenty curious
persons present who pressed forward to
hear the verdict of the jury read in a fall
tering voice by Clerk of the Court Charles
Brown. The verdict was:
I'VE, the jury, find the defendant Ora
Copenhaver, guilty of murder in the first
degree, as charged in the indictment, and
sentence him to suffer death"
This Is the first sentence of death award
ed by Marion county jury in fourteen
years, and the prisoner preserved his dis
interested demeanor, and, aside from a
blanching of the face and lowering of his
eyelids, did not seem to be affected by the
sentence, which, in the event of a new trial
being denied, and the affirmation Of the
finding of the jury by the Supreme Court.
will mean his death at an early date.
When the jury had been polled. on the de-
mand of Attorney Henry Seyfried, chief
counsel for the defense, and Judge Afford
had thanked the members of the jury for
their patience and forbearance during the
trial and discharged them from further at
tendance on the court, Copenhaver was
taken back to the Jail, and as he walked
from the courtroom he appeared to be no
more affected than he was at any other
time during mis- trial for the murder of his
wife.
FIRST IN FOURTEEN YEARS
The awarding of the death sentence by
the jury is the first that has been secured
by any prosecutor in Marion county for
fourteen years. The last case was that of
Edward Amman, in 1883, who was found
guilty of the murder of Bertha Elf. on
North Illinois street. by cutting her throat
Azman was defended by Duncan & Smith,
and after being granted new trial took
the case on a change Of venue to
Johnson county, where, under a
plea of guilty, he was sentenced
to life Imprisonment and is still serving the
sentence in the penitentiary. Previous to
that case Robert Phillips, colored was
sentenced to death by jury in 1884 for the
murder of his wife, and. although forced to
breathe through a silver tube inserted in
his throat because of his Intellectual at
tempt at suicide at the time of the MUIR
der, was hanged in the jail yard in In
dianapol1s. Other prior death sentences in
the last twenty years and their executions
were those of Louis Guetig, son of the
proprietor of the then Spencer House, who
was sentenced to death and was hung In
the Marion county Jail for the murder of
Mollie McGlew, domestic employed in his
fathers hotel by shooting her while he was
intoxicated, and, earlier William Merrick
and John Achey. Merrick killed his wife
and buried her body in the sand under a
log in the bed of Eagle creek. and Achey
shot Claude Leggett in a saloon brawl
over gambling alteration.
The jury which sentenced Copenhaver to
death was composed of Willis Metcalfe, De-
catur township; Frederick Hartman, War
rem township; Albert Weatherly, Decatur
township; William E. Lovett. city: Charles
Copeland. Franklin township; William Z.
day, Center township; r. G. Allen, city;
Lincoln Foltz, Wayne township; William
Guian, city; Asbury Guian, Pike township;
Henderson Turpin, city.
After being taken from the courtroom
and to the county Jail Copenhaver in talk
ing with Deputy Sheriff Conner. said that
0f
thing to go to bed on" and in reply to a
question to whether he was surprised
at the verdict or not said: mo, expected
it," He was uncommuncative and replied
to further questioning by the sheriff in
monosylable and walked into his cell
without displaying any grief or feeling
over the verdict.
ARGUMENT OF ATTORNEYS
During the session of the court yesterday
argument by Attorneys Charles McGroarty
and Henry Seyfried for the defense and
the closing argument of Prosecutor John
Ruckelshaus occupied the day until the
case was sent TO the jury.
McGroarty. in an argument of one hour
and forty minutes. described minutely the
crime, dwelt on the seriousness of it and
its atrocity and pointed to the cruel fea-
lures of the crime and the subsequent ac-
ton of the accused man as indisputable
evidence of his insanity. The experts who
teStlfled 10 tne insanity OF CopenhaVer and
the fact of his ancestors and immediate
family connections being insane and his
fathers unnatural appetite for whisky
proved conclusively that he was insane
when the murder was committed and is
insane at the present time, McGroarty
said.
Following Mr.. McGroarty, Henry Seyfried
made the chief argument for the defense.
The insanity plea was given all his at
tention, and his extracts of the expert tes-
timony adduced. and his attempts to dis
credit testimony
ing side were addressed TO the jury in an