Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1907-06-28
PROTECT MISS LOVING
BY A PLEA OF
INSANITY
Defense In Virginia Murder
Case Declares That
Her Father Was
Crazy.
IMPEACHMENT WILL
THUS Be STOPPED
Tragic Story Told by Girl to Pro-
teCt Aged Man From COnvlC-
tion Is Principal Point
OF Attack by
Prosecution.

Houston, Va, June 2S.-The plan
OF the defense In the trial of Judge
Loving for the murder of Theodore
Estes Is 10 prevent any impeachment
or Miss Lovings testimony by a plea
Of emotional insanity as the ground
for Judge Lpving's act. Miss Loving
testified that Estes gave her whiskey
and then attacked her. Believing this
Judge Loving killed Estes. Miss Low
ing testified to the attack. Now, to
stop the effort of the state to prve
that her statement was false, the de-
tense showed today that it will rely
llrst upon insanity and second upon
the "unwrit;en law"
The Prose cution then announced
as their first witness Miss Annie Kidd
who they saio would disprove the
story of Miss Loving. This was inn
mediately objected to and the jury
retired. The attorneys for the de-
tense argued that the prosecution
nae no right TO enter into the truth
or the falsity of the story told by
Miss Loving to her father, and cited
the New York decision by which Dis
trict Attorney Jerome was not al
lowed to impeach the testimony of
Evelyn Thaw. Delmass tactics pre-
vented the possible impeachment of
Mrs. Harry Thaw throughout the
entire trial.
Claim Defendant was Insane.
The ruling of Judge Barksdale on
this point Is deemed most important
by counsel, as the prosecution claims
10 have witnesses to disprove every
statement made by the girl who told
the story of her ruin on the stand
yesterday.
The defense closed today after the
examination of three witnesses called
10 prove that Judge Loving was In
sane at the time of the killing. The
defense asserts that the mind of
Judge Loving had, after years of dis
sipation, which frequently caused him
to have delirium tremens, became so
impaired that when his daughter,
Miss Elizabeth Loving, told him her
story he became deranged and was
not responsible.
Acquittal Expected.
Many residents of this town say
the result of the trial is already a
foregone conclusion, but 1t will be
argued out to the end in order to
satisfy the regularity of judicial pro-
ce0Ure and also, perhaps, out of con-
sideration for the friends and rela-
t.Ves of the murdered man, who nat
urally want to have their side of tho
case placed in as favorable a light as
possible.
But most of the people here be-
lieVe Loving will be acquitted. The
prosecution raised the point as to the
time elapJed between the provoca-
ton and the killing, three or four
hours, and also that the provocation,
in the nature of information at sec
on6 hand, was not sufficient to legal
~ mitigate the punishment, but this
was regarded merely as a contention.
The popularity of the matter is
shat an innocent man may have been
killed because somebody told the man
who killed him that he was guilty.
But the defense points out on every
occasion that the story told to Loving
by his own daughter was reasonably
creditable, IL for no other reason, be-
cause there was no conceivable OBJ
ject in telling him what was false.