The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-02-25
Court Proceedings

possession.
Court Proceedings
The first thing done by Judge Lip
pincott, Thursday morning, was to fix
the 18th of April as the date on which
to have the will of the late Margaret
Sloan, of Mount Holly, considered
Mrs. Sloan had will drawn by law
yer and it was properly executed and
witnessed, but after this had been
done she made several changes with
out going to the trouble of adding cod
icils. She ran pen or pencil
through some Of the original items
and wrote something in their stead.
1t now remains for the court to decide
the legal status of the instrument. If
1T can be proven that the items crossed
off were those declared by the deceased
as her last will and testament that will
settle the case.
Mr.. and Mrs. James s Langdon, of
Bridgeboro, applied for permission to
adopt Evelyn C. Conover. child of
six years OF age. 1t was shown that
the father of the child is quite aged
and unable to give his daughter the
proper care The mother is dead. Mr..
and Mrs. Langdon are known to be
very reputable citizens of Bridgeboro
and after he heard the testimony
Judge Lippincott said he was perfect
ly satisfied that it was for the child's
welfare that permission to adopt be
given.
Jean Garrett, a colored man, was
brought in on waiver of indictment,
charged with assault and battery on
Harry Ford, of Bordentown. The man
pleaded guilty. Mr.. Ford was called to
the stand and the story he told was
one that put the colored man in very
bad position. Mr.. Ford said he went
into fish store in Bordentown and
asked the price of some fish. The
colored man was in the place and he
applied very profane epithet upon
Ford. The latter did not take any
notice of this and the defendant repeat
ed the remark and followed it up by
grabbing Ford and throwing him upon
the floor where he struck and kicked
him. Not satisfied with this Garrett
picked up heavy wooden chair. Ford
had strength to crawl under a table
and the colored man smashed the chair
on it, breaking the chair in pieces but
the table saved Ford from injury.
When asked to give his side of the
case Garnett admitted all that had
been told excepting that portion relat-
ing to the chair He said he had been
drinking and did not remember that
part of the affair. He said he had never
seen Ford before and could not account
for the attack. He was sent to the
State Reformatory at Railway.
Lillian and Emma Kimble, sisters,
were brought in to be sentenced on a
charge to which they had previously
pleaded guilty. Lillian was placed on
probation and Emma was senttback to
Jail to await further action by the court.
Yesterday Salvatore Frustaci and
Joseph Gentle were brought into
court and changed their plea of not
guilty to non vult. They are the men
who were indicted for attempting to
kill the wife of Frustaci. The crime
was committed on the road between
Bordentown and Columbus when Gen
tile cut the woman badly with razor.
James Mercer Davis made plea in
behalf of the men. He did not con-
done the crime nor did he deny that
it was dastardly act. There was
not any justification for it but the
thing to do was to discover which of
the men was the most guilty. Mrs.
Frustaci is bigamist, having been
married before she met Frustaci.
When he discovered that situation he
instituated divorce proceedings. Mr..
Davis claimed the woman had been
writing obscene letters to other men
in jail, and while this did not justify
the cutting it went to show what sort
of a woman she was.
Judge Lippincott said he had been
trying, during the argument, to dis
tinguish the degree of guilt of each
man and he had not been able to find
that there was any distinction, so he
sent both of them to the state prison
for term of not less than seven
years or more than twelve years.
In the case of the state against
Hubert Cromwell and James Pritch-
low, prosecutor Kelsey dropped the
indictment charging them with I'M
natural conduct. There was another
indictment and Mr.. Kelsey asked per-
mission to amend it. When the grand
jury reports it is always asked if it is
willing that "the indictments may be
changed in form but not in substance"
In this case the indictment was drawn
up wrong, and as the amendment
would have changed the substance,
Judge Lippincott refused the prosecu
tors request. Under the circum-
stances there was nothing left but to
discharge the prisoners.
The indictments against Frank Cole
and Howard Mosley were next called.
They were charged with keeping dis
orderly house in Bordentown. After
some testimony had been taken the
defendants came to the conclusion
they did not want to contest any
further and they changed their plea
of not guilty to non vult. Sentence
will be pronounced later.