Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1916-12-07
SATURDAYS PROCEEDINGS

SATURDAYS PROCEEDINGS
With the court room filled to It's
capacity the state opened its case
against Albert Mammenga for the
murder of Andrew Sonnek, Saturday
afternoon at 2 o'clock. Mrs. Mann
menga, wife of the accused, together
with her three children followed the
testimony of the witnesses With
strained interest. Mrs. Andrew Son
mex, wife of the deceased man, sat
with her three boys, Kenneth, aged
13, Armon, aged 8 and Ronald, aged
7. Mrs. Roy Torrey, sister of the
deceased man, accompanied Mrs.
Sonnek.
The father and a brother of the
accused are also attending the trial,
as is Miss Cecilia Belts, a niece of
Sonnek.
w. S. Baldwin is First Witness for
State.
According to the story told by Mr..
Baldwin and substantiated in all of
it's main features by the witnesses
who followed, the threshing crew, of
which he was a member, were thresh-
ing on the farm of Mammenga. About
II o'cl3ck in the morning Mammea
ga walked up to Sonnek, who was
standing on the platform of the en-
gine of the threshing machine, and,
after asking him a question, began to
swear violently at him, and walking
around the tank wagon, which was
standing about three feet from the
engine, grasped Sonnek around the
waist and pulled him from the plat
form.
Mammenga then pushed Sonnek
back over the platform and had his
hands on his throat when Roy Tor
rey, the engineer, told the men to
"cut it out" They got up, walked a
few feet from the thresher and be-
gan to tussle again. Sonnek was
thrown to the ground and Mammen-
ga landed on his knees at SOnnek's
side. 1t was while he was in this
position, according to the witness,
that Mammenga thrust his knee in
to Sonnek's stomach. The men were
separated and Sonnek got up, walk
ed to the separator and then started
to the cook-car but fell upon his
face before reaching the car. He was
then taken in Roy Torrey's car, by
Mr.. Torrey, to his home. Later DR..
Guest was called and took the vic
tim to Jamestown, where he died
few hours later.
In the cross examination, cOnduc-
ed by Attorney Freerks, which fol-
lowed the questioning by Attorney
Thorp, who is assisting States At
torney Chase, Baldwin asserted that
he could not hear all that the men
said before the struggle began but
that he was certain that Mammenga
was swearing.
Ray Baldwin Gives Testimony.
The second witness for the state,
Ray Baldwin, is the son of the first
witness. Ray asserted that he was
IT years old and was on his fathers
bundle wagon at the time Of the be-
ginning of the trouble. The first
thing that the witness noticed was
that Mammenga was swearing or
"cussing'' but the exact words used
~ the defendant were forgotten.
Ray asserted that Mammenga shook
his fist at Sonnek and then struck at
him. When questioned further
about Mammenga striking Sonnek,
he replied, II am not sure that he
struck him but l am sure that he
struck at him."
The witness was then asked by Al
torney Thorp to illustrate just the
manner in which Mammenga grab
bed Sonnek when he was on the en-
CINE platform. In complying with
this request Baldwin grasped Mr..
Thorp near the waist line. He fur
ther asserted that when Sonnek was
lying across the platform of the en-
CINE that Mammenga had his hands |
1T Sonnek's throat and said, shut
up or will choke you to DEATH" He
also said something more but this