The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-06-17
COURT CONVENED
MONDAY MORNING
tuesday Took Recess Un-
I'll! Frida>
d. L. BOOZER tS
FOUND GUILTY
GoldNiIlc Man Who Fired II Fusilade of
Bullets in and around l., ". Bin-
docks House and Property only
Nan Tried so inr.


The court Of .sanC raj sessions con-
| vcncd Monday morning with Judge l..
B. Gary presiding. All of the court
officials were present except Sheriff
! Owngs, who is very i'll at the Julia
lrby sanitarinm. The court remained
| in session until yesterday noon when
a recess was taken until Friday morn,
ing when the case OF Joseph G.. Sui
livan, charged with killing John M.
Cannon, Will be taken up. Court will
| convene at 8 o'clock, somewhat earli-
er than usual
! After the organization OF the court
Monday morning, the case Of d. l..
Boozer, charged with assault with in
tent to kill, was taken up. Mr. Booz-
er, we'll to do farmer from the Vi
cinity Of Goldvillc, and at present q
candidate for the house Of reprcsen-
| tative, in a heat OF passion or period
of insanity shot up" Goldville on the
morning Of January 3, 1913. Mr..
Boozer was found guilty of assault
of high and aggravated nature. SEN
tcnce has not yet been passed upon
him. There was little or no conflict Of
testimony as TO the occurrence it.
self. All the witnesses testified to
the fact that Mr.. BoOzcr went to the
house of Mr.. l.. w. C. Blalock, with
| whom he had had some difficulty over
a contract hand, and began shooting
into the front Of Mr. Blalock's house;l
| then going around to the side he shot
several times through the. hallway be-
| tween the dining room and kitchen,
broke the window Of the dining room
with the end Of his gun and then went
down to Mr.. Blalock's store where he
continued his operations, doing con-
| siderable damage to property but no
injury to people. He was there ar
rested and later brought to Laurens,
where he secured bail. Several
months ago he entered a sanitarum
at Columbia for treatment Of nerv-
Gus trouble.
Insanity was the defense of Mr..
BooZer. Testimony was introduced to
show that he had not bcon in the
full possession of his mental facul-
ties since the killing OF his son in
Chester about seven years ago. A
number OF witnesses testified that on
numerous occasions since that time
and up until very recently Mr.. BooZ-
er had talked to them OF his son and
often would appear to loso all con-
/ troll of himself. His attorneys con-
tention was that on this morning Mr..
Boozer was not in possession of his
reasoning faculties and that he was
not aware of what he was doing. On
the stand the defendant denied any
recollection of the events which trans
pircd on that morning.
The main facts in the case being
admitted and the court having inti-
mated that the question was largely
whether or not tho defendant was able
to decide between right and wrong
| at the time Of the shooting. COnsid.
cradle weight was attached to the tcs-
timony OF witnesses that Mr.. BOozcr
Immediately offered to reimburse sew
cral for the damage he had done them
and yet did not offer to repay Mr.. Bla-
lock for his losses. The conclusion
| drawn from this being that if Mr..
Boozer had not been mentally sound
he would not have made any distinc-
tion between his friends aud enemies
in rcpaying the damagos, The state
sought to provo ttat MIR RonZ, acted
| in the heat OF passion rathor than in
a period OF insanity.
Grand Jury Prosentnbent.
! Following Is the presvnhInfMt OF the
grand jury:
State of South Carolina,
County of Laurens
To the Hon. y. b. Gary presiding and
Honorable Court now In session:
We, the grand jury for tho above
state and county do hereby respect
fully beg leave to submit this our
| final presentnent.
First. We have passed on an bills
| placed before us for consideration,
except in the case Of the State vs. Sal
/ . al 80, De-