Bismarck daily tribune., 1908-11-25

MURDER |
Taking Of Evidence by Pros
eCutiOn Begun in Logan
County Case
Doctors Testify to SOmIner-
felt's Death From ffaC-
tured Skull
Wife Of Dead Man Tells
| Story Of Row " Which
Faded in Murder

Napoleon, Nov 24.-SpeciaI to Trib-
une.-At Q o'clock Monday afternoon
taking of testimony in the John Per
mann murder ease was commenced
This is the case that created a great
deal of excitement in Logan county
last June when Michael Sommerfelt
was reported to have been killed by
a neighbor, for which offense John
Permann is now on trial.
The court room was crowded with
spectators who followed the proceed
ings with breathless interest. The
defendant, with his father and broth
er, sat close beside counsel for the
defendant, while equally conspicuous
was Mrs. Sommerfelt, the widow,
with her three children, ranging in
age from to about Z years. The
jury in the case has been kept to-
gether in the custody Of the sheriff
and bore their Sunday captivity very
we'll except for one juror who was
slightly i'll today.
The state first introduced two large
diagrams showing the place where
the affray took place and the sur
roundings. The particular locality
is section II, township 135, range 10.
about on the line between the Per.
mann and Sommerfelt lands
%.
Doctors Tell of Crushed Skull.
DR.. G. A. Mathews, of Napoleon,
next went on the stand to testify
to the injuries found upon the dead
man, using a human skull to show
the jurors the particular points tes-
titled to-. He and DR.. Green of Wis
HEX, made an autopsy, and he express
ed himself as finding: "a scalp
wound on the right side of he'd, clear
through the bone, having a blood ,elot
underneath it, blood oozing out of
the left side of the skull; we found
the suture between the frontal and
parietal bones separated; also frac-
ture of the coronal suture; then the
fracture ran downwards and back
wards through the temporal bone
through the root of the zygoma."
The doctor gave the blood clot as
the cause of death, and that the clot
was caused by external violence.
Two other witnesses were called
by the state, one of whom saw Som
merfelt before he died, after the af-
fray, and both came to Sommerfelt's
house again when he had breathed
his last. ~..'.
Permann Scattered Poison.
Tuesday morning the principal wit
ness for the state, Mrs. Sommerfelt,
widow Of the man who was killed,
went on the stand and told her side
of the story. There had been an un-
friendly feeling between the Per-
manns and the SommerfeIts for some
time. The buildings of the Sommer-
felts were quite near the line be-
tween their land and the Permann
land, while the Permanns home was
some distance away.
The witnesses story was, in brief,
about as follows: 49,
John Permann, the defendant, on
the afternoon of June 1st, 1908, came
to the line between the Permann's
and Sommerfelt's with pail and
commenced to scatter poisoned grain
right and left on the ground of both
owners. It was grain treated with
strYchnine, such as is generally used
for poisoning gophers Mrs. SOM
merfelt and her husband, now de-
ceased, went to the line and took the
pail away from him and cuffad him.
She said he called her vile name.
Both of them left the line, Mrs. SOM
nerfelt taking the pail with her. Al
terwards John Permann returned to
the dividing line with his father, Hem
~, and his brother Fred. and demand
ed the pail. Then the ARRAY ensued.
Continued on page 8.