Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1916-12-06
This Is Verdict Of Jury at
Arkansas City in Jeffsr-
son Murder Case.
EXECUTION SET FOR
JANUARY IL NEXT
Accused, Testifying In Own Behalf,
Declares Joe COrpureau, His Ac-
cuscrs and Charles COrpureau, .
Son, Killed Popular Planter.

Aaron johnson, negro, was con-
vlcted of murder in the first degree
for the killing of R. L. C'Bob'O
Rutherford and sentenced to death in
the electric chair on January - by
jury in the circuit court at Ar
kansas City, to which place the case
was transferred on motion for
change of venue from Jefferson coun-
ty The jury was out only about 80
minutes.
me trial was started yesterday
forenoon, and little time was requir-
ed to obtain a jury. The testimony
was in by 2 o'clock, when arguments
began, Prosecuting Attorney T.. G.
Parham presenting the states case,
and Attorney I. F. Long actinh for
the defense. By 80 yesterday after
noon the verdict had been announced.
The testimony adduced yesterday at
Arkansas City brought out no details
not already published. Johnson, tes-
Trying in his own behalf, declared, as
he did when first arrested that Joe
Corpureau killed Mr.. Rutherford Joe
Corpureau, who has been held as
material witness since the day of the
murder, testified that Johnson killed
the popular planter and business man.
Johnson's 14year-old son told the
court and jury "they were all shoot
ing" and when asked by Prosecuting
Attorney Parham why he had not
made that statement before, the boy
declared that Immediately after the
killing of Mr.. Rutherford and the
flight of Aaron Johnson and Charles
Corpureau, son of Joe, the elder Cor
poreau had told him to saw Johnson
had killed the planter, and threat
ened the boy if he failed to comply.
Johnson's daughter, arrested as
witness on the day of the tragedy, did
not testify.
Facts with Negroes.
Only the condemned man, his ac-
cuser and members of the two mems
families can give all the facts con-
corning the tragedy enacted in the
field on the Rutherford place on the
forenoon of September 10, when one
of the most highly esteemed men in
this section was assassinated. There
was not a white person near, and the
negroes apparently scurried from the
field like rabbits, leaving the body
of the victim lying out there in the
sun. Joe Corpureau started off in
Mr.. RutherfOrd's buggy, presumably
to notify the manager of the place
but he turned the vehicle over to
another negro with the death mes
sege. Corpureau told the officers that
day that Johnson and Mr.. Rutherford
had engaged in quarrel and they
alone participated in the shooting.
Constable Green found a shotgu, in
the Corpureau home, and decided to
hold Joe Corpureau.
When Aaron Johnson was arrested
two nights later by Sheriff Williams
Chief of Police Stewart and Deputies
McBurnett and Mayberry in cabin
not many miles from the scene he
told the officers that Corpureau had
killed Mr.. Rutherford, and had sug-
gested that Johnson and Charles Cor
bureau flee to divert suspicion from
him. Corpureau was to settle ur his
affairs, according to Johnson, and
join them later in Louisiana. Johnson
sticks to this story.
Charles Corpureau, who is said by
Johnson's son and daughter to have
fired the shotgun, has thus far sue
ceeded in evading arrest.
The fact that the negroes had car
ried gun to the field with them, TAX
en- in connection with the circum-
stance that Mr.. Rutherford's body
showed wounds by pistol bullets and
buckshot, has never been satisfactor-
lily explained.
Johnson and Corpureau were both
taken to Little Rock the night of
Johnson's arrest, feeling here being
high against the slayer of Mr.. Ruth
erford.
Circuit Judge W.. B. Sorrells grant
ed motion for a change of venue
from Jefferson county because Of a
desire to take every possible precau-
ton against attempt at lynching.
Johnson Is in the custody Of the
sheriff of Desha county. who will take
him to the penitentiary to await exc
To