Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-23
EVIDENCE
IN MURDER CASE
Rebuttal by State Completed in Car.
rington Trial and Arguments
are Started.
DEFENDANT TAKES THE STAND
ColOred Boy Claims He Did Not Shoot
Lester Nesbit Until Latter
knocked Him Down.

| Nesblt will be soon known. Introduc.
! ton of evidence in the case was COM
pleted at 1870 this morning in cir
cult court and opening argument to tn.
Iury was started by A. c. Edwards, as
; slstant states attorney.
! Mr.. Edwards reviewed the testimony
and declared that there was no provo
cation for the shooting and that the
charge OF murder had been fully and
completely established. He will be
followed by Judge jeremiah Suli-
van, Chicago, and H. NJ. McCaskrin,
Tor the defendant, and the conclJd-
ing talk for the prosecution viii be
gwen by States Attorney F. E.
| Thompson.
NO time limit is put on the lawyers,
and one of the counsel for the deferse
animated that Judge Sullivan would
want two hours and Mr.. McCaskrin,
Jour hours, in which case. arguments
cannot be completed before tomorrow
morning.
Darlington On Stand.
Charles Darlington took the SIND
in his own defense yesterday after
noon. His testimony varied in sew
eral esser tial points from that told at
his first trial. He said that he h.d
lived in Chicago three years before
the shooting and prior to that in
Memphis, Tenn. He told of having
talk with Lester Nesbit a Wee, / efore
the trouble and of telling him that
the bunk needed cleaning.
'Nesbit told me he wouldn't do it
! and | told him | would report hill,'
declared Darlington in explaining the
feeling which had arisen between the
two men. Il had been IN the habit of
riding down on the diring car every
no ming. On my way 70 TIE bunk car
the night before the trouble | 81: two
men and bought a gun of them 1t was
loaded and | put it in my over; oat
pocket. l retired at II O'Clock. 1t was
pretty dark when l went to the car
the next morning about $50 The door
was open and | laid the blankets l was
carrying on a seat on the north side
near the middle of the car. One scat
was broken on the south side, three
seats to the west.
Il had dropped to sleep when Mes
bit came into the car. He called me
Black - and struck me- The
blow stunned me little. l fell with
my head to the west end of the car.
thought he was going to kill me. | shot
him in the leg to make him get off Of
me. He sat on a broken seat. | ran
past him and picked up his cap. vert
out the east end of the car and threw
my gun away. l went to the home of
Mrs. Moffett on Eighteenth street,
near Fourth avenue, where | washed
my wounds. There were marks on nv
neck where he had been choking me.
| caught train into Chicago, went to
my mothers home where | changed
my bloody clothes and then reported
to the commissary department the
shooting"
He identified his underclothes, over
coat down which blood had tric!ied
and Nesbit's cap. He sad that he had
never talked to Nesbit before the
trouble over the dirty bunk car. He
said Nesbit had not threatened bin
before. He explained that he held the
revolver in his hand during the fgnt
and did not shoot until Nesbit had his
knees on his stomach.
When States Attorney F. E. ThDmp-
; son pointed out differences in his YER
sions on the shooting and that which
he gave at the first trial the boy
simply said he cannot remember what
answer he gave at the first trial. He
said he weighed but 113 and that his
height was five feet, four inches.
: Claim Threats Made.
James Cruikshank and Henry Sto"!i-
er both testified they heard Ne5blt
make threats against Darlington. At
tempt was then made II the defense 70
show that Nesbit was a vicious and
brutal man, and to SUPP 0rt this theory
called Justice S. L. Van NoOrden, to
testify concerning a case in justice
court several years ago, in which
Nesbit plead guilty to assault and bat
terry, but this morning Judge Church
struck out the testimony.
The court also refused to allow the
testimony of Edward Summons, anil
Jacob Wigers, deputy sheriff, to go
to the jury Simmons was called to
tell Of alleged threats which Ne5bit
had made against Darlington and the
|. deputy was called to show that Car
rinrton had been a model prisoner
while in jail and had informed the Off
GERS of an attempted jail break re-
Gently. States Attorney Thompson.
however, showed that the note rela-
tive to the delivery was not written
until after the officers had already
found out about tie scheme. Charles
Oberstaller told of threats Nesbit
made against Darlington.
Character Witness Excused
The state started to introduce tes-
timcny relative to Nesbit's reputation.
]. Clinton Searle was Gale but the
court refused to allow his testimony to
20 to the jury on the ground that the
character of the victim Of the shooting
was not an issue in the case. \, this
point States Attorney Thompson
pulled a clever little trick After the
jury had been brought back into the
room. the county prosecutor an
IounCed that all of the witnesses sum
moned to testify tc the good reputa-
tiCn OF Mr.. NPsbit were excused and
dozen or more filed out of the court
room. H. NJ. McCaskrin objected but
The men continued to walk out, so that
the Jury could not fail to see the num-
Der who were ready to testify TO Nes-
bits standing in the community
Edwin Dice, court reporter, tcstlFed
relative to differences in testimony
which Darlington gave at the nrst
hearing and in the first trial, AFTER
which the state rested in rebuttal ana
arguments began.
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