The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-02-24
STATE PRODUCES
 RELATIVES AS ITS
 STAR WITNESSES
Father-in-Law and Daughter Give Damaging Testimony Against Miner in Corn
 field Murder Case

Meridian, Miss, February 23.--(Spe- cial. The chain of circumstantial evidence drawn by the state around Roy C. Miner being tried for the mur- der of Mrs. Josephin Morris, is said to have been materially strengthened in the circuit court here today by the testimony of two of the states star witnesses. J. E. Johnson, father-in- law, and Cleo Johnson 13-year-oid sister-in-law of the defendant. The prosecution rested It's case when the little girl left the witness stand.
 The father-in-law of the accused testified, in substance, to hearing shot fired at about 10 o'clock on the morning of the afternoon the body or Mrs. Morris was found nearby in his cornfield while he and members of his family were engaged at work in s,igarcane patch. He stated that when he went home at the noon hour to dinner, he missed his shotgun from the rack over a door in his room where 1t was kept Also he testified he found the weapon in bedroom of the house and replaced it on the rack.
 Johnson's small daughter, Cleo, a pretty little brunette, whose com posture on the witness stand won the admiration of spectators who crowded the large auditorium. testified to hav- ing seen her brother-in-law, Roy Miner leave the home of her parents. armed with shotgun. Soon after she said she heard the report of gun.
 The testimony of neither the father nor daughter was materially shaken by the rigid cross xamination of Judge Marion Reilly of the defense counsel. although both were kept on the stand and under fire for several hours.
 The father-in-law of the accused also testified to the finding of the dead body of Mrs. Morris when he and his wife were seated in d wagon driv- ing through the cornfield for the pur- pose of gathering velvet beans that had been picked and piled about the field. He said. he and his wife re- turned home, SAnly making a casual examination of the body, not determin- ing how she had been killed, and notified Roy Miner, who was at the Johnson house with his wife, telling the latter to go to Charlie Odom s store, about two miles distant. and telephone the sheriff of the finding of the body
 Johnson testified that Roy Miner and wife slept in the bed in his house that night, , which, as had been previously testified, Gants' blood hounds had trailed and parked a few moments before they ended their trail In Front of Miner on the outside of the house the morning after the commits sion of the crime.
 When the states attorneys, District Attorney Martin Miller and Tolbert Odom, the latter assisting County Att torney Malloy in the prosecution, an nounced that the state would rest it's case, the defense attorneys, Judge Reilly and Charles B. Cameron. made motion that the court allow them to take possession of the shoes worn by Roy Miner at the time of his arrest and which had been offered in evil dence by the state, for an investiga- ton the defense desired to make. The prosecutors vigorously opposed the motion on the ground that as the shoes had been offered in evidence. the defense had no right to take them out of the Jurisdiction of the court ana the jury. The motion, however. vas sustained by Judge Fatheree and Judge Reilly and a party of gentle- men left the courthouse for the scene Of the killing, after which court ad- 1ourned until tomorrow morning.
 The shoes in question are tbose a1- ieged to have been worn by the oefendant when he was arrested one of which, according to the testtmonv mas peculiarly marked sole ana made the tracks that the bIoodhounds ara alleged tS have followed when Miner was arrescHd.