Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-06-30
NEW TRIAL DENIED HYDE
Prisoners Attorney Files Motion for
Arrest Of Judgment.
IT WILL BE ARGUED TUESDAY
when This IL Disposed OF the Mat
ter of an Appeal 60 the state
Supreme Court VIII he
Taken Up.

KANsAS CITY. June 2s.-Dr. z. c. Hyde
convicted on May 16 last OF poisoning
Colonel Thomas II. Swope, the millionaire
phlanthropist, was denied a new trial by
Judge Ralph s, Latshaw In the criminal
court here this morning
The prisoners attorney Immediately filed
n motion foi the arrest of judgment and
the judge set Tuesday next as the time
for arguing the point. When this motion is
disposed Of next week, the matter of APP
peal to the supreme court and a motion to
release DR.. Hyde on bond will be taken up.
Mrs. Hyde sat beside her husband dur
ing the reading of Judge Latshaws de-
cision this morning. Neither appeared dis
turbed by the courts refusal to grant
new trial. Hyde smiled back at his wife
as he returned to his cell.
DIT. Hyde was tried on the specific
charge Of numbering Colonel Swope by the
administration OF poison while attending
him as a physician. There are ten other
Indictments against the physician, charg
ing him with killing and attempting to
kill various members Of the swope family.
The theory of the state was that HYDE
desired to kill the other heirs to get pos
session of the estate through his wifes
inheritance Mrs. Hyde was a niece Of
Colonel Swope
Decision of the Court.
In regard to the charge of the defense
that he had prejudiced the jury against
the defendant in revoking the latter's bond
and sending him to JAIL while the trial
was in progress Judge Latshaw said ten
Of the Jurors had made affidavits that
they did not know DIR. Hyde had been sent
to Jail until after the trial was finished
and that tho iurVis yardict was NOT influ-
enced by the courts decision. Judge Lat
shaw said he exercised the greatest care
to keep from the jury the fact that the
defendant was in jail.
He said the prosecution had lost the
grand jury notes and was Daererore dis
armed, and he did not intend that the
court should lose the prisoner He said
that should the defendant have failed to
appear in court, the court would have
been compelled to discharge the jury and
the defendant might have been immune
from later trial because of the publicity
that had been given the evidence against
him.
He said his action in admitting evidence
relating to crimes charged in other indict-
ments against DR.. Hyde other than the one
on which he was tried, was legal and sup
ported by numerous decisions. He said
that when O series of offenses tended to
prove a general motive, evidence relating
to all of them was admissible in trial
where only one specific charge was made.
The court said 1t was proper to admit
evidence that the defendant had used cyan
ide in committing the crime even though
the indictment read that Colonel Swope
came to his death by the administration
of strychnine or other poisons. He said
that the attorneys for the defendant had
the grand jury notes in their possession
and were aware that the grand Jurors
had no knowledge that cyanide had been
used by the defendapt. The defendant in
his motion for a new trial contended that
the indictment should have stated specif-
ically what poisons were used.