Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-08-14
A CONSPIRACY.
CONTINUED from Page One.)

family was an inquiry Sucn as the
| one just closed and he outlined the
months of efforts on the part of SUIT
toms mother and sister to bring this
about Mrs. Sutton's suspicious, he
| said, grew with the delay. 1t was
| intensified by rebuffs and disa appoint
| ment and turned into conviction which
| found expression in denunciation which
could not, he said, be thought strange
Mr.. Davis said the tragedy did not
| follow a drunken brawl, that Sutton's
alleged former escapades shed no light
upon the case and that these and 9TH
err matters should never have been
brought into the case.
He sketched the events of the even
ing and night as shown by what he
declared, We're uncontroverted facts,
and criticized the part of the finding
of the first board of inquest saying
From thorough investigation and
from the evidence before it, which it
believes is all the evidence procurable, -
| declaring that vast amount of testi-
mony had not been brought out by the
board of inquest, though easy of ac-
cess.
MIR. Davis declared that the fights
| that Immediately preceded Sutton's
| death were not fought by Sutton but
| by the others who on the witness stand
| acknowledged bitter enmity against
Sutton. He pointed to the marked diff
ference in the testimony of Lieuts.
Adams, Utley. Osterman and others
and declared that Sutton, after going
| to camp and arming himself for self
protection, returned toward the scene
of the fight merely to recover his
clothing.
He ridiculed the idea that Sutton
killed himself because he thought he
killed Roelkeer, saying that the evi.
dence shows there was no apprecia BILE
interval between the exclamation He
has killed Rocker and the firing of
| the fatal shot. He pointed out con-
| hicts. Inconsistencies and contradic-
| tons in the testimony. Lieut.. Adams,
he said. twice had changed his testi-
| mony to meet the exigencies of the
evidence with which he had been con-
| fronted.
There was. Mr. Davis declared. ii
| manifest conspiracy of suppression and
| falsehood to help the living and black
| in the dead the only thing sought to
be established by witnesses involved
was the suicide OF Sutton, which Mr..
| Davis said the evidence wholly failed
to show
Taking up the description of the ia :
tai wound given in the testimony of
Surgeons Pickrell and Cook, Mr.. Davis
contended that the infliction upon
himself. of such wound by Sutton was
justification, he said. for the SUPPOSE
| ton that the course OF the bullet from
| the muzzle of the pistol to it's stop
| ing point in Suttons head was other
than a straight one.
Every indication. said the spen'ser
Is against the fact of suicide, which
under the rules of law and reason Inu 81
be established beyound all reasonable
bought. The one pretended motive, he
said, was Sutton's supposed conscious
ness of having killed Rocker. This
lcompels the assumption, he continued
that Sutton heard the remark about
Rocker and believed it and that he
was in condition to act and that BELIEF
all of which is negatived by the evi.
dence. Mr.. Davis declared he does no,
believe that Sutton committed suicide
nor he fired the shot at all.
He maintained that it was not hi.
place to point out the hand that die
| Kill Sutton, that function belonging Il
the court, simply to show he did no
Kill himself
A. E. Birney. counsel for Lieut.
, Adams, then addressed the court. H,
compared the honor of an officer to tn
t honor of woman and declared tn,
young lieutenants involved would b.
. relieved of all responsibility for Sut
tons death. He said the charge
were based entirely on the frantic
rawlings of woman"
A. E. Birney. counsel for Lieut.
Adams. addressed the court and sait
the charges were based entirely on tn,
frantic rawlings of a woman"
He defined the possibility of Lieut.
Sutton having been beaten to death