Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1906-12-11
Young Man Is Accused of Receiving
Stolen Property--DiffiCuIty in
Getting Jury.
NOVEL POINT OF LAW ARISES
Can Jury Hold Over From Term to
Term?--fedigan Guilty On Sec.
0nd Charge.

''''f S"ii was IpuIlu guilty ON Two
charges Of horse stealing. The first Grim
for which he was convicted was
that of stealing bunch OF horses
from parties living on the Ju-
dith. This theft will 80 down In Fer
srs county history as one of the bold
| est. IL not the boldest ever committed
readers are already familiar with the
details Of the daring and foolhardy
robbery.
The second charge upon which He'd
isan was found guilty is that of selling
the same horse to two parties, first to
Leslie Mccain and then to a ralf
breed named Zach Gardipce. In this
ease the defendant was ably assisted
by good legal talent and II hard fight
was put UP by the defense. 1t appears
from the testimony offered w both tie
defense and state that about six year,
ago Hedigan sold u buckskn animal,
literally covered with brands, to Me
Cam. Several years later the horse
strayed away from Mccain, going to
her former range near Fort Maginnis.
The same animal was found in the
possession Of Tony Fre hre last fan.
lie traced the animal back To zach
Gardipee, who claimed to have pur-
chased the horse from Barney Hedgan.
Here is the only place in The case
whore the testimony Of the state and
the defense conflicts. The state claim
ed that the much branded buckskin
was the horse which, Hedigan sold
to the breed, while the defense claim
ed that the buckskin horse sold to Car
dipee had but one brand bar 2, ana
was unauestionably Hedigans prop
ertv. In their contention, a bill of
sale executed before Frank Barnes Of
Gilt Edge. showed, that the horse had
but one brand, although the other
brands, as the state claimed may not
have been observed by Barnes when
the bill was executed Mike O'Brien
testified that he saw the buckskin horse
sold to the half breed and upon ex-
amining the horse saw but one brand
Opposed to this strong defense, was
'iiO U Sl'lii'ilS VI Ell anu Ldcn liHfd1-
pee. who We're positive that the horse
bought by them was the one in aues-
ton, which had been previously sold
to Mccain.
The jury did not deliberate long. but
| after less than an hours session re.
turned verdict of guilty.
On Thursday morning of last week.
the grand larceny case of the state
ID he,
cused of being a co-defendant with
Barney Hedigan in the theft of the
Rooney horses, was called. On motion
OF county attorney Ayers, the original
information charging the defendant
with the crime of horse stealing was
amended, SO as to accuse Ryan of
knowingly receiving stolen property
Judge Cheadle fixed Ryan's bail at
$4,000, which he readily secured Ryan
enetred his plea of mot guilty" waving
the statuatOry time of pleading. The
case was set for Friday afternoon at
200 o'clock. Counsel for defense re-
fused to begin the case at that time,
and after scoring the defendants at
torneys for taking advantage Of the
laws technicalities, at the expense OF
the county's taxpayers, Judge Cheadle
1000 when jury was selected after
the usual amount of challenging and
counter challenging.
Henry Pelican, the well known Ken
dali ball player, who was accused OF
faving participated in an assault made
upon Claude Trailkill, the E,lkhorn
hack driver, during August, was found
guilty OF assault in the third degree
and fined $780, Pelican's defense was
that, as he saw a scuffle on the other
side of the street in front Of Christe's 3
restaurant he ran over to separate
the contestants. In so doing it was
necessary for him to strike Traiikill at
least once. in the melee which ensued
The state showed that Pelican made
vicious attack upon Trailkil, who
was practically helpless at the hands
of half dozen assailants.
Two more me" will be tried for
taking part in tiiat scuffle, which re-
suited in Trailllilis .ofing laid up for
several weeks. These two men are
Neill McEvony and Dan Meyers, the
former of Gilt Edge and the latter of
Kendall
An interesting point of law which |
has hthorto been INFESTED, arose at /!
the opening of the Ryan case yesterday
morning at 10;00 O'clock ATTORNEY
Worden, in behalf of the defense, chal-
ienged the two regular jury panels, and
made motion that all jurors then on
the venire be dismissed, on the ground