The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1920-04-04
MARSHALL
CONVICTED
MONROE COUNTY MURDER
Err GOES TO GALLOWS;
MADE POOR DEFENSE;
LITTLE CONCERN.
FATHER CONVICTED
End of Remarkable Trial of
DiabOlical Murderer;
Shocked Whole
South.

Tupelo, Miss, April 3.--Less than
two hours after arguments in his case
had been closed, Charles Marshall,
accused in indictments returned by
the Monroe county grand jury of the
killing of four members of the Mil
Ter family near Anory on the night
of January Is. was taken back to
his cell in the Lee county Jail, having
been found guilty of the murder of
William MilleE, infant victim of the
tragedy-all to have been his
own child-and sentenced to be hang
ed here May IA.
Motion for a new trial is expected
to be made this week.
Marshall heard the verdict without
visible emotion, nor did he give any
expression of his feelings when sen
fenced to death. Likewise, he made
no statement when the customary
question was asked if he had any
thing to say before sentence was
passed.
His aged stepmother, whose hus-
band, John E. Marshall, father of the
man convicted, is to be placed on trial
on charge of murder in connection
with the crime, threw her arms about
the younger Marshall as he arose to
be sentenced and fell on the floor
in faint.
There was no demonstration by the
crowd which packed the court room.
The jury was out barely an hour
after receiving the case and spent
part Of that time eating lunch.
Charles Marshall was placed on
trial here Monday on change of venue
from Monroe county. Pearl May Mil
Ter, IA, the only surviving member of
the family, and principal witness for
the prosecution, testified that from
an unceiled loft, where she had sought
safety, she saw him club the baby to
death.
Marshall, testifying in his own de- I
fense, denied the accusations of the
girl, and declared that at the time of /
the tragedy he was at his fathers
home, some distance away.
John E. Marshall was indicted Joint
ly with Charles Marshall and another
son, Felix, on charges of murder,
arson and assault with intent to mur-
der.
Tupelo, Miss, April 3.-Another
blow by the state, this time at the
which schemed and car
ried out their horrible plan to ex-
terminate the Miller family near
Amory last January, came this morn
ing in the conviction of John f. Mar
shall, the 70-year-old father Of Char
ley Marshall and who, it was vigor-
ously insisted, was the engineer and
guiding spirit of it all.
The jury found old man Marshall
guilty as charged; that is, that he
Burley, the baby sen of
Fannie Green Miller. But they dis
agreed on the punishment, and the
law in Mississippi holds that in such
a case the judge shall fix the pun
Ishment at life in the state peniten-
tiary.
-Four of the jurors were in favor Of
hanging him. All, Of course, were
convinced of his guilt.
Like Charley, the son who was SEN
fenced to hang for the same crime,
old man Marshall took the verdict
without a murmur, and hardly with
out batting his eye. About the only
Impatience he had was at the delay
following the returning of the verdict
when the lawyers were hurrying
about and comforting in their effort
to get the motions for new trials
straight in the records and get away
for the day.