The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-05-06
AN ACCIDENT
TO BE DEFENSE
Mrs. Dodge's Attorney Ad-
vances That Line OF Argument
In HEATH MURDER CASE
Evidence Presented to Indicate That Re.
yolver Might Have Been Fired by
Fall to the Floor or Some
Other Way.

Guildhall, May 6.--That William
Heath must have been shot accidental
ly by himself is the contention of the
Dodge. charged with the murder Of
Heath, which is being tried in Essex
county court Attorney Harland b.
Howe for the respondent, stated when
the state had rested its case yesterday
that he would put in evidence to show
that Mrs. Dodge did not shoot Heath,
that she did not take tie revolver out
Of the drawer in her bedroom and that
she did not see the weapon till after
the shooting
The defense began putting in evil
dence yesterday afternoon. DR. John
NJ. Allen of st Johnsbury was the
first witness He said he had exam
ined the revolver in evidence and was
familiar with that make of gun. He
had noted several pecnliarities about
them One was that a slight pres
sure on the trigger would release the
hammer and that the gun would re-
lease itself at half cock. He demon
strated both statements He dropped
the gun, while at half cock. three
times and the last time the hammer
was released He said Drs. johnson
and Leigh had obtained the same re-
suits in experiments, He said in
his opinion the shot that killed Heath
could not have been fired while both
people were standing, nor while the
one shooting was sitting in chair.
He said it would have been possible
for the wound TO have been made il
the revolver had dropped on the floor
and discharged
DR.. Allen said it would be possible to
make a wound similar to that which
killed Heath il the person shooting
were sitting or lying face down on the
floor OF standing on his head. lie
said he had visited the Dodge home and
did not believe the bedroom was large
enough for two persons to have stood
in it and one Of them infiiet wound
ut an angle similar to the one which
killed Heath He said he had exam
ined the portions Of Heath's body where
the bullet entered and found fold
in the skin such as might have been
made II the muzzle of the gun had
been pressed against the body. He
said he had examined the base board
which Heath was supposed to have been
painting and in his opinion it would
have been impossible to have dragged
the body from that point to the one
where it was found without daubing
blood along the floor
| Attorney General J G. Sargent
| took the cross examination and made
searching and insistent query as
to the witness theory of angles, lat
erals and other technical terms He
soon had the witness confused and he
changed his answers Witness theu
began to counter with sarcastic replies.
The attorney general asked him i
he had ever seen revolver fall to
the floor, go off, recoek itself and &c
off three times and the witness re.
piled, "No."
Miss Flora Balch, telephone operator
at Lunenburg, said that between ll;3C
and IL on the day of the shooting she
heard two sharp rings from the Dodge
house She remembered them because
she thought at the time someone was
anxious to get central She was busy
one the long distance line and did not
/ answer for a moment Later there
was third ring when call was sent
for physician
In cross examination she told At
torney General Sargent she had TOLD
States Attorney Amey the calls were
after noon, but on thinking the matter
over she discovered the error and told
Mr.. Amey over the telephone he wished
TO correct her statement
The next witness was T.. H Hunter
superintendent of buildings at Dart
mouth college, and he brought in al
apparatus to illustrate technical terms
used as to angles, lateral lines ant
curvature of the body He showed how
the revolver could have been placed tC
have inflicted the wound in Heath, us
ing Samuel Richardson as a moled. III
said it could only have been inflicted
when Heath was painting, if he stoot
| in a position where the head came be
low the lateral line of the body, whicl
he said was unusual and uncomfortable
He doubted if a man would ever paint
in that position.