Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-01-25
BALING'S STORY
THAT HE WAS HIRED
BY MARTIN TO DRIVE THE
STOCK
BECAME SUSPICIOUS THAT ALL
WAS NOT RIGHT AND LEFT
HIM
EMMONS COUNTY SHERIFF REAPs
NICE HARVEST FOR KEEP.
ING HORSES

iiudy AFTERNOON the case against
George D. Baling for horse stealing
was closed as far as the testimony is
concerned. Arguments were then
made to the jury by B. Anger, assist
sant states attorney for the state, and
Messrs Newton and Donohue for the
defendant.
This case deals only with one horse
owned by Gustav G. Spangberg, while
this same defendant, together with
A. p. Watson and Wylie Martin, are
charged with taking not only this
horse, but also eight more owned by
M. Spangberg, for which they will be
tried later. All the defendants have
requested separate trials, which un.
der the law, must be allowed them.
The defendant, George D. Baling,
boldly went on the witness stand him
self. After eleven witnesses had been
called for the state, he undertook the
herculean task of getting out from the
shadow of the penitentiary into which
they had placed him.
In his story he admits being with
Wylie Martin, who has been dubbed
the true thief, but that he was sim
ply hired by him and he had no I'M.
lawful intent. He says Martin hired
him for the purpose of driving Ger.
tain horses, leaving him in the dark,
however, as to their destination. Bal.
ing was doing some odd work around
the Merchants hotel at Mandan and
says that he left word that after the
employment by Martin he would be
day.
Then his story runs that they same
to Bismarck, looked for Pat Kelly, did
not find him and then started north
on horseback. Then he asserted they
stopped at Kelly's house on his ranch
north of Bismarck. Nobody was there
but they went to bed and Kelly and
his two hired men came home about
four o'clock Monday morning and that
Baling was then ordered out of bed
and slept the rest of the night on a
couch. "
The next day Baling claimed Kelly,
Martin and he started out and went
some distance from the house. Then
he was directed to go to a certain
house and stay there awaiting the re
turn of the others. He waited at this
house until Z o'clock that evening,
when Martin came along with the
horses. He then described their night
ride, Kelly having left them, driving
the horses along and crossing the
Missouri on the ice, and up to Tim
merman's ranch in Morton county.
Just at that time Baling says he be-
came aware of the unlawful character
of the transaction and abruptly left
Martin and the horses and went back
to Mandan. He also says he never
got paid for his work. During March
last year things became warm around
Mandan <this business having taken
place in February, 1900 and defend
ant, Baling, asserts that he knew the
sleuths were on the trail of the rob-
bers and if he was guilty he would
and could have escaped. He was ar
rested in the first days of April, 1907,
and his was one of the cases brought
before the grand jury.
The state did not directly connect
the defendant with the crime except
in an inferential and circumstantial
manner. Much interest was manifest
ed in the evidence of Pat Kelly who
was called in rebuttal. Pat Kelly did
not identify the defendant, but spoke
of the night visit of the two men in
the early part of last year. Kelly
said that he took these two men on
the road towards Baldwin to a dis
lance of one mile and then left them
for good, thus contradicting some
very important parts of the defend
ants statement.
L q