Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-10-30
THE CECILIA CASE

killing John Felten of the same To-
cality, on the night of October Is, had
his preliminary examination in mu
nicipal court before Judge Marchetti
Friday, lasting until late at night of
the same day, ending with the dis
charge of the defendant
The evidence for the state was that
on the evening of the 18th of October,
1917, two young men by the names of
Fischer, living in the town of McMil
Ian. went to Marshfield in their auto;
while there they met with two of the
Felten boys who were also there with
their car, and other acquaintance,
and visited several saloons and also
a bowling alley; that about nine
o'clock, at the invitation of one of the
Feltens, they with one Jehle, went
to Foth's saloon in Mcmillan in the
Felten auto, the Fischer boys leav-
ing their own auto in Marshfield. They
stayed from one-half to one hour at
Foth's saloon, which is about five
miles from Marshfield, and from there
they intended to go to Stats, another
place. 1t was a cold, stormy, very
dark night, and leaving Foth's place
between ten and eleven o'clock,
they drove first north about half a
mile to the next corner, as far as
Ceglas place, then turned back,
passed Foth's place again and went on
their way to Marshfeld. Coming down
south to the first turn of the road the
car stopped at or near the turn of the
road The three men in the back seat
got out for some private purpose, as
they said, and the occupants of the
| car, seeing a team coming their way
turned out little to let the team
pass. 1t was a one horse team with
gray horse. AS the team passed,
the driver of the auto said he recog-
nized the defendant as the man driv-
| ing the wagon, by the light of the car.
| The other men did not recognize him,
saying that the darkness prevented
them from seeing him.
The three men who had gotten out
| of the car were a little ways behind
the auto, and after the wagon had
| passed the auto a very short distance,
| the shot was fired and the deceased
received the mortal wound from
which he died at the hospital. AS to
what happened on the road after the
wagon had passed the auto, and passed
close to the three men in the road
| behind the auto, the states evidence
was very meager to say the least.
The two men said that they heard
| Felten ask the man in the wagon
whether the road they were driving
on was the road to Marshfield, and
that the wagon driver made some re-
ply, and then Immediately they heard
a shot, and looking back they saw
| Felten falling down and heard him
| say II am shot"
The two men who had stepped out
of the auto with Felten when it
stopped then picked Felten up and
carried him to the auto and took him
to the Marshfield hospital. None of
them saw the man fire, in fact, hardly
saw him or knew of any cause why
| he should fire, but concluded that
the wagon driver must have been
the man who fired
The affair was not mentioned at all
| on their way to Marshfield by any one
of the men in the auto, nor at the
Marshfield hospital, when the wound
ed man was left there, nor was any
one of the Marshfield police notified
OF the occurrence by them.
| All the men had grown ND in the vi
entity where the shooting occurred,
were perfectly familiar with the road
to Marshfield had just come from that
place and were going back as they
said, and the question asked of the
| driver of the wagon whether thew
were on the road to Marshfield sound
ed rather curious, as well as the fact
that the affair was not mentioned at
all by the men on their trip to the
| hospital.
| The state produced another witness
by the name of Perlock, who also
drove one horse wagon a very short
distance behind Cegla, who passed
the auto, saw it standing there. with
the light out, and heard some man
talk to Cegla, but all he could under
stand was the word "Marshfield. :"
then he heard sounds as if some
one had struck or hit very hard
| then he heard shot, and Cegla's
| horse, evidently scared. started to run
| away. He saw three men stand in
the road as he passed the auto. but
| could not make out who they were
because of the darkness of the night
He also testified that the night was
very stormy, dark and cold. Coming
little ways to cheese factory. he
saw Cegla had stopped there and de-
llvered a barrel of salt for the cheese
maker, and then Cegla told him what
had happened.
The defense put on a witness by the
name OF Joswiak, who drove a team
coming from Marshfeld short dis
lance behind Perlock: he saw the au-
10 standing half way in the road
hearu some words spoken and a
noise as from hitting some one, and
then the shot.
Cegla himself testified that he came
from Marshfield, passed the auto
saw some men in the read in the