Evening star., 1935-11-19
SISTER DEFENDS
TEACHER IN TRIAL
Child, II, Declares Virginia
Hills Girl Was Threat
ened by Father.
BY the Associated Press.

ened by Father.
BY the Associated Press.
WISE, Va, November 19.-Sobbing
a story of a drunken father who tried
to whip his 2l-year-old daughter.
little blue-eyed Mary Catherine Max
we'll testified today In defense OF her
sister, Edith, charged with Staying
their father, Trigg Maxwell, a black
smith Of Pound.
Midway her story the l2-year r-old
girl broke down and sobbed convul-
sively. Mountain women in the court
room also wept, and jurymen leaned
forward on the rail in an effort to
hear the little girls words.
Saw Father Drunk.
Trigg Maxwell was drinking beer
when she saw him at the Lonesome
Pine Cafe about o'clock on July
20. Catherine testified, adding that
he was drunk an hour later when he
saw her playing Oh the sidewalk and
told her to 90 home.
It said I was going home" she said,
but he better had come with me-"
Catherine said she was awakened
when her father came home about
1890 pm, then heard him 60 out ana
come back about two hours later.
where's Edith" she quoted her
father as saying Mother said she
went to Wise with Vernon Maxwell "a
cousin Of the defendant)."
Tells Of Quarrel.
"A man ought to break her damned
neck" Catherine said her father re-
piled.
When Edith, q school teacher, re-
turned, Catherine said Trigg Maxwell
quarreled with her for being out late
and said he was going to whip her
and make her mother leave home the
next day.
"You might can whip me-" Cath
crime quoted Edith as saying, but you
can't make mother leave. This house
Is as much hers as 1t Is yours"
Catherine said she heard Edith cry
you can't stab me with that butcher
knife" and then heard scuffling. Later,
she said, her father wiped his hand
across his head and said to his wife,
Anne, look what she's done"
The defense contends that Edith in
fiicted blows on her father with q
shoe as he advanced upon her after
threatening the whipping.
Sticks to Story.
Under lengthy cross-examination
Catherine, still sobbing occasionally,
stuck to her story. Frequently q pug
zled look came over her face IS she
said:
II don't understand the question"
Once, explaining about water being
poured on her fathers face, she told
o. M. Vicara, prosecution questioner.
You don't know what ] mean"
Jumping from the witness chair she
rushed over to the prosecution coun-
sells table to point out the location OF
. room on . map.
Oll ulICSI d4l0 CIOoc GAaAAA4oeASAA
Catherine said 1t was sometime after
the struggle between her father and
Edith that Trigg Maxwell was heard
to fall on the floor. He was lying on
his back ON the porch near the meat
block, she said. Prosecution witnesses
have testified that the alteration oc-
CURED about l am. and that Maxwell
died about 2:3o am.
Asked about the position Of her
fathers hands and about the color OF
his shirt, Catherine said:
II didn't notice, and you wouldn't
either If you had been as scared ~
I was"
Lays Death to Fall.
Mrs. Maxwell, herself indicted IN
the case, has theorized her husband
was killed by . fall against the chop
ping block.
Schoolmates of the girl at East
Radford State Teachers College, Miss
Alta Cantrell and Ruth Baker, and .
teacher, Conrad Boiling, yesterday
testified she had threatened repeatedly
to kill her father. The death penalty
Is not being asked.
Mrs. Maxwell stuck firmly TO her
story under cross-examination.
Trigg Maxwell was roaring drunk"
she said, when he returned to their
mountain home about 1880 the night
he died. He went out again and
returned about 1880.
Heard Argument.
When Edith returned, her mother
said, she heard sounds Of an argu-
ment between father and daughter.
She heard her daughter cry Don't
stab me with that butcher knife"
she said.
She saw no blows struck, the woman
said, but did testify to seeing blood
running from . wound on Maxwelrs
head to his face. Her husband as
sured her. the witness went on, that
the wound was not serious. Later. she
said, she heard her husband get out
Of bed and heard him fall down. She
found him, dying. beside . meat-cut-
ting block on the back porch and as
sumed he had struck his head tn fall
ing.
Tells Of Threats.
The mother. first of the defense
witnesses, was called. to the stand IN
the late afternoon altar IL witnesses
hAd teOeAed log The oeaaA.