Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1925-10-15
COLE GETS LIBERTY
AT WILKESBORO
Wealthy Slayer of Bill Ormond Is
Adjudged Sane Man and Released
IN Neighboring Town.


manufacturer who shot and killed
Bill Ormond last August went from
the Wilkes county court house at
$3.50 O'Clock Tuesday a free man.
He was ordered to Wilkesboro after
his acquittal last week by Judge T.
-rB. Finley for the purpose of estab-
z fishing the sanity of the defendant.
The decision of the Judge was: 81
cannot send this man to the insane
asylum, for from the evidence be-
fore me he is sane man."
Cole left Immediately with his fam
lily for Greensboro where he spent
the night and will leave shortly on
"a rather extended vacation.
- We are copying dispatch from
Rockingham under the date of the
12th, which will give our readers
an idea of the feeling there after
the trial, and will furnish aisS some
information to those of our subsGrib.
ers who do not take daily papers,
and have therefore been in poor po-
ssition to keep up with the case:
III so far as this town is outward
1y concerned one would never imagine
that. barely "a hours ago there came
to conclusion homicide trial that
wos epochal in the history of North
Carolina, and was of nation wide in
~ p,Yf xx,l,ilo fhn o,I al
prevails, there is undoubtedly exis-
ten; feeling both for and against
the act of w. B. Cole that knows
no -.eutral ground.
One must be either for or against.
And yet the chief figure in this
entire affair, Mr.. Cole himself, would
no doubt be the last person to bear
mace. In Jail today he is as calm
and confident ;as he bias been since
he -hetaand killed Bin oap. md here
August dissatisfied in the assurance
= that he acted on two premises; to
defend his own life, and to protect
his family from alleged ISLANDERS. And
while perhaps so per cent of the
towns population may not side with
him. yet they bear no i'll will TO him
e,.sonally but rather to his act. For
w. B. Cole, regardless of his worldly
goods, bears the imprint Of an up
right life, a devoted husband, model
father and unassailed citizen.
md on the other hand the young
man Ike killed, w. W. OrmOnd, dur
ing his five years residence here,
lived life against which aught can
not be spoken. His intimate friends
attest his integrity, the clean life he
lived and his abstemious habits.
The verdict of not guilty rendered
by the Union county jury at 10 o.
clock Sunday morning, after wres-
ting with a decision for % hours,
was based solely on the SANDER phase
of the unwritten law. The jurors pri-
vately admitted chat they simply ar
rived a decision by placing them
selves in Mr.. Coles shoes. But since
the law does not recognize the un-
written law the verdict in the eyes
of the law revolves itself upon the
transitory insanity plea. And now
it is this insanity matter that is to
engage the attention of"the attor-
neys at Wilkesboro.
Interviewed today Solicitor Phil
lips expressed indignation over the
'not guilty" verdict. He asserted in
vigorous fashion that if Mr.. Cole is
now allowed to go free, after having
been acquitted on the grounds of
insanity, that the responsibility must
rest solely upon the trial judge.
81 want the people of North Caro-
lima to know just where the response
bility now rests" stated Solicitor
Phillips.
1.-The state is indignant over the
verdict, and as solicitor of the 18th
judicial district, l shall present to
Judge Finley the evidence to insanity
as offered by the defendant during
the recent trial. The state takes the
position that if the defendant was
insane at the time he committed the
crime, that he is now insane, for the
simple reason that the law does not
recognize any temporary, transitory
or emotional insanity. But on the
contrary does recognize a diseased
condition of the mind.
Further" continued the Solicitor
''the law contemplates that if man
is acquitted of the high crime OF
murder on the grounds of insanity
he is dangerous to himself, to his
family and to the community in which
he, lives, and such acquittal puts the
responsibility on the trial judge that
tried the case of committing him to