The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-11
TRIAL NEARS ITS END
RAPID PROGRESS Is BEING MADE
IN POTTER'S CASE.
MAY GO TO JURY TOMORROW.
NEGRO WITNESS ADMITS HAVING
CHANGED HIS TESTIMONY.

IlRmHn
It-TestimOny of Three Witnesses
in Former Trial Read-one Wit
ness Is Out of state and Two Are
Dead-Son of Murdered Man lden-
titled Fathers Gun and Told of
Finding His BOdy-Case to BE Con-
tinued This Morning at 10 O'clock.
The Potter case was continued in
the Superior Court yesterday and the
attorneys and court officers now be-
lieve it Will go to the jury some time
tomorrow. The interest in the case
continues as was shown by the crowd
that packed the court room all through
yesterdays session.
The hearing developed little If any
thing that had not been developed in
the former trial, though one OF the
witnesses made some rather starting
admissions during Cross-examination
conducted by Judge Twiggs. This wit
ness was James Jenkins an overgroWn
colored boy, who in direct statement
told of Bourquin and Taylor passing
his house the morning on which the
men were snot and said that afterward
he had seen Bourquin in the buggy
dead as the mule and buggy passed
in front Of his house on its way home
When Judge Twiggs took the witness
in hand he asked him if that was
the same statement he had made TO
himself and Mr. w. w. Sheppard
when they had gone to his fathers
house and questioned him. The witness
he I'D
Judge Twiggs or Mr.. Sheppard at his
home, but later admitted that he had
seen them.
rs this the same statement that you
made on the stand in the other trial,
asked the examiner.
mo, sir" the witness replied in the
most matter of fact way.
The witness in reply to other ques-
lions relative to his former testimony
denied that he had said certain things,
then admitted that he had only to again
deny them in such rapid fashion that
finally Judge Twiggs asked:
What gentleman got you to change
that statement"
The negro looked helplessly about
the court room a moment then said:
Il don't know him, sir.
but you did change it, didn't you?'
asked the attorney.
Eyes, sir replied witness.
Lowell Again stand.
When the court convened the first
witness on the stand was Mr.. L. f.
Lowell, who had been testifying to the
finding of the bodies of Bourquin and
TAYLOR at the time the court took
o i1pn-
titled diagrams of the various local-
ties and certain photographs that were
put in evidence, told about finding the
gun and seeing the footprints of
dog near the scene of the killing.
In the cross-examination Judge
Twiggs wanted Mr.. Lovell's opinion as
to whether the gun that Bourquin
had with him when he started out had
been fired shortly before Bourquin met
his death. The gun was in court and
Judge Twiggs picked it up and exam
ined it. It's quite an old gum he
said, land / don't suppose it's loaded
-" WELL" broke in the solicitor,
hold it toward the court, If you want
to, but don't hold it in my direction"
The next witness, Alex Jenkins, was
afraid of saying anything that he was
not absolutely sure of, and showed it
in his manner. He told of Bourquin
and Taylor passing his house the Sun
day morning in question, and of the
mule with its dead burden again pass
ing late in the afternoon; then Judge
Twiggs undertook to find out some
thing of the distance of Jenkins house
to various points to which the evidence
in the case apply. He was asked how
far it is from his house to a certain
place.
Il do not know: I did not measure
it," came the careful and evasive re-
ply.
To a similar question regarding an
other point the witness gave the same
answer, couched in the same terms He
seemed to fear TO change even the
modulations of his voice
Reverting to the dead body in the
buggy having been seen by the wit
ness, Judge Twiggs asked
Are you sure it was Mr.. Bour-
qun?"
You seem like you try to tangle me-"
witness replied.
BOurquin's Son on Stand.
James Jenkins followed his father on
the stand and then came Mr. Gilbert
Lowell, who testified that he had been
in the neighborhood of the Bouruuin
place the day that the killing had taken
place, that he was told of it late in
the afternoon and still later, while on
his way to the city had met the mule
drawing the buggy with the dead man
in it and had led the mule back to the
road and tied him to a tree where he
was finally found by those who went
from the city in search of the body.
Mr.. @. Bourquin was then put on the
stand. He identified his fathers gun,
and in reply to questions said that
Fred Taylor walked in a peculiar man.
ner as the result of rheumatism. He
did not leave the city the day his IA
ther was killed, Mr.. Bourquin said, and
the first he knew of the affair was
when Mr.. f. F. Lowell came to his
house that night and told him what
had happened
After he heard the news he started.
Tor the home of Mr. John H. Fox to
get him to go with him for the body
and while on Montgomery street on
his way to Mr. Fox's home he saw
Potter wearing a cap and hunting coat
and leading by a string a hound or
deer dog. He told of finding his ia
theirs body and also that of Taylor.
The latter, he said. had been cut IN
pretty badly. 1t was not in the center
of the track when found He said also
that his father and Potter had been on
very unfriendly terms for ten or twelve
years.
Peter Smith, a clerical looking negro
who called all the negroes he had oc
casion to refer to Brother" told a bout
his visit TO the church at the Dean
Forest bridge and how. while there
he had seen a wagon with some women
and children pass, and also a man.
whom he had since learned was Horn
on horseback