Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-12-06
ADDISON COUNTY COURT
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and Vernon A. Billiard of Burlington
the defendant. Nodecision was reached.
An effort was made to fix date for
taking up the Smith will case, but
without success, and at IL o'clock a
recess was taken until p. m.
AT the beginning of the afternoon
session Sheriff Smith made proclama-
ton for the attendance of the grand
jury. This is special grand jury and
was called especially to investigate the
circumstances of the shooting of Milo
Wright by Louis Purinton at Starks-
boro, the victim later dying as a result
of his injuries. The 18 men summoned
to comprise the panel were all on hand
when called for and Judge Miles gave
them some clear instructions as to the
difference in the three classes of felon-
Gus homicide murder in the
first and second degrees and manslaugh-
ter, as defined by the law of the State
of Vermont. And for the reason that
no grand jury had been called out in
this county for two years the court
gave them instructions in regard to
their general duties of inquiring into
the disposition of the State school tax
by the several towns, the condition of
the county Jail, the condition of the
burial grounds of the various towns,
the condition of the highways and the
outlay of the school moneys. Former
Assistant Judge Henry D. Branch of
Orwell was appointed their foreman
and at 2:40 O'Clock the grand jury re-
tired to take up their work.
Proclamation was next made for the
attendance of the petit jurors and the
roll call showed 35 out of the 38 sum-
moned to be present, the other three
having been excused. The customary
instructions were impaired to them and
amplified to a considerable length, so
that there could be no mistake as to the
character of their duties and obliga-
tons.
Shortly after 8 o'clock the Jurors
were excused until o'clock Wednes-
day morning and as their were no
further matters ready to be brought to
the attention of the court, at 1920 re-
cess was taken to that time
Sheriff Smith has reappointed all of
the Is deputies who served with him
for the past two years and some of
whom had served in this capacity long
before Mr.. Smith was first elected
sheriff, eight years ago, Mr.. Cobb of
Middlebury being the oldest not only in
years, but also in time of service,
which is nearly 40 years. The roll of
deputies is: William H. Cobb, Thad
NJ. Chapman and Noble J. Sanford of
Middlebury, John H. Became of Lincoln,
E. H. Palmer of Monkton, Henry P.
Fisher of Vergennes, Fred K. Rowley
of New Haven, George S. Farr of Bris-
tol, w. H. Birchard of Shoreham,
7. Y. Hooker of Goshen, Stephen E.
Noonan of Ferrisburgh, Henry E. San
ford of Cornwall, Frank Nj. Hill of
StarksbOro, Allen c. Plue of Orwell and
Pearl H. Eaton of Hancock.
The motion for continuance in the
case of John NJ. Alden VS. j. A. Merrill
was got over with by the concessions of
some points in the specifications, so that
this case was put on for the first civil
jury trial promptly upon the opening of
court Wednesday morning. James B.
Donoway of Middlebury and George NJ
Stone of Vergennes represented the
plaintiff and V. A. Billiard of Burling-
ton was counsel for the defense.
1t was claimed for the plaintiff, who
is constructing contractor in YER
gennes, that under a written contract
he, in July and August last year erected
a 54x30 foot barn for the defendant,
j. A. Merrill and Anna S. Merrill, his
wife, who reside in Burlington, on a
farm owned by them in the town of
Addison and occupied by Merrill S
brother, Rollin Merrill. The contract
price was $3.50 and the plaintiffs suit
was brought to recover $500, which he
claims as balance due under that con-
tract. On the other hand, the defense
claims that the barn was not built ac-
cording to the contract and that there
was scrimping and cheating in both
materials and workmanship. The tes-
tlmony for the plaintiff took up most of
Wednesday.
During an intervaAin the forenoon
session the grand jury were ushered into
court at 10 O. clock and took their seats.
Judge Miles stated to them that it had
been ascertained that one of their num-
Der, Norman j. Atwood of Ripton was
disqualified for serving on their body,
} and he was thereupon excused from
further service and paid off. Henry C.
Roscoe of New Haven was called from
the spectators in the court room to fill
the vacancy, and after Mr. Roscoe had
TAX zen the oath the jury filed out again
to begin their work all over.
The Alden and Merrill case took up
the entire time of the court on Thurs
day. The defense rested their case at
II O'Clock and the rest of the day was
taken up with rebuttal testimony on
both sides. 1t is expected that another
trial will be begun this forenoon, but
the case is uncertain.
At the opening of court in the after
noon the grand jury came in and made
their report. They reported two true
bills found and submitted a written re-
port in which they said that they found
i :. 2 i i