Evening star., 1934-08-20
.LEGENzA ENTERS
NOT GUILTY PLEA
in HUBAND DEATH
Mail Truck Drivers Widow
and z Daughters at
Richmond Trial.
MRS. F0NTAINE GIVEN
ESCORT FROM HERE
Misunas, Who Confessed Part in
Tri-State Gang, Is Guarded;
Adjournment Taken.
By the Associated Press.

A"ANAAAsAA'Db w., AuBd AUs-Au uC
trial of Walter Legenza, alleged tri-
State gangster, charged with the mur-
der Of E. M. sHuband. q Federal Re-
serve truck driver, was recessed until
9 o'clock tomorrow shortly after the
panel of 20 veniremen from which the
jury of IL will be selected was COM
pleted
Legenza pleaded not guilty to the
indictment charging him with first
degree murder,
There were six counts in the indict-
ment and he answered not guilty to
each Of them.
Capital Punishment Asked.
Legenza listened without change of
expression as prospective jurors told
the court they were not opposed to
capital punishment.
In addition to Misunas and Mrs.
Mary Elizabeth Fontaine the States
witnesses include ]. r. Briggs and
c. B. Harris of Richmond, said to
have been eyewitnesses when Huband
was shot by gangsters leaping from
shrubbery within stones throw of
the railway station; Coroner ]. M.
Whitfield and detectives, police off,
GERS and postal inspectors from both
Richmond and washington.
Many spectators were denied ad-
mission to the court room and milled
in the corridors as the trial got under
way. Police on guard at the doors
excluded almost every one except
court attaches, witnesses, newspaper
men and others directly interested In
the trial.
Widow in Front Row.
Mrs. Huband and her two daugh-
ters had front row seats. She was
dressed in deep mourning.
Charles w. Moss, counsel for the
defense, who last Monday asked for
a continuance in order that he might
have the testimony of New York wit
nesses, today said he had some of
them. He said Thomas Brescia was
here and, according to Moss, is the
owner Of a restaurant on Pearl street,
New York, where Legenza is said to
have eaten supper at the time the
murder was committed here.
Moss said also that he had another
New York witness who was the opera
tor of rooming house in which Le-
genza was supposed to be staying on
March 8.
Another witness, William Reynolds.
who was to have testified that he ate
supper with Legenza on the night Of
the crime, was said by Moss to be Ill
while vacationing in the Catskill
Mountains and unable to attend. Moss
said he would rather not identify
for the present the rooming house
operator.
Brescia's testimony was forecast to
be a trump card in Legenza's aIibi
defense.
The prosecution is expected to rely
largely on the testimony of Arthur
Misunas, who with LegenZa and Rob-
ert Mais are alleged to be key men in
what is known as the Tri-State gang.
Misunas Pleads Guilty.
Misunas, captured in California,
has pleaded guilty to participation in
the murder here, naming Legenza as
the actual killer.
NILS. WIlO Sdlu BIC
was shot and wounded by gang
sters because she knew too much"
was In a long conference with
Commonwealth's Attorney T. Gray
Haddon just before the not guilty plea
was entered. She was brought here
early today from Washington under
police escort. The party came In
three automobiles. Neither she, MI
sunas nor Mais was in the court room
at the opening.
Marie McKeever, arrested wifh
Mais in Baltimore, "a and blond, was
in the court and was expected to be
called as q witness. Also present was
Leo De Ward, United States postal in
spector from Washington, who was in
strumental in the arrest of Misunas
and who was released from q Rich
mond hospital today, where he had
been recuperating from injuries suf-
fered when Washington police car
overturned last Monday.
The court after an hour and hal
Of questioning veniremen got II &C.
ceptable out of the first 40 and imme-
diately started on the second venir;
list. Seven of those excused we're dis.
Iil1ooCu O1 bIAC BLOuAl0 tIldt OAlCy HCI
opposed to capital punishment On
G. B. Hewlett, colored, was dismiss
because he could not hear.
Mais Trial to Follow.
Mais, jointly indicted with Legen:
will be tried as soon as the Legen
trial is over, and Misunas, who pleadC
guilty, will be sentenced.
AS a prelude to the scheduled open
ing of the Legenza trial a week ago
the Club Forest, rendezvous Of the
gang, once owned by Herbert Myers.
who was shot to death resisting arrest
in New York, was bombed and burned.
officers intimated the bombing might
have been intended as 6 warning" to
State witnesses, and Mrs. Misunas
quoted her husband as saying the
bombing would not have occurred II
he had not been in jail.
Misunas Closely Guarded.
Misunas regards himself as ION tn
spot" and is being closely guarded in
the Jail here by two policemen armed
with riot guns. His wife, also in Rich
mond. is under the watchful eyes OF
the police.
The Tri-State gang is suspected OF
long list Of crimes in Virginia, Wash
ington and other States, including the
$50, 900 hold-up Of a bank messenger
in daylight hold-up last Winter.
Legenza and Mais we're arrested in
Baltimore. while Misunas was appre-
hended in San Francisco.