Evening star., 1944-06-22
Mergner Waits
Sentencing 10
Electric Chair
Baker Found Guilty
In Divorce SIoyine;
Appeal Is Planned
Bx JOSEPH YOUNG.

Convicted by District Court jury
of first-degree murder. Fred G
Mergner, 45-year-old widower ano
father of five children, today awaited
formal sentencing of death in the
electric chair for the Staying last
October Is of his former house
keeper, Mrs. Charlotte Robinson.
The bald, paunchy defendant was
the first white person in the District
to be convicted of first-degree mur-
der since 1896, when Thomas Jordon
was found guilty of the Garden T.
Shoppe Staying of Mrs. Elizabeth
James on Good Friday in 1881. Jor-
don's sentence later was commuted
to life imprisonment.
Defense Attorney John H. Burnett
said today that the conviction would
be appealed. The death penalty will
be imposed sometime next week by
Justice James M. Proctor. Under
District law, the death penalty is
mandatory in first-degree murder
conviction.
Jury Out 80 Minutes.
The jury took only 80 minutes to
find Mergner guilty of the murder
of the woman whom he had hoped
to make his wife. Receiving the
case shortly before 3 pm. the jury
sent word at 4:20 pm. to Justice
Proctor that they had reached a
verdict.
Among the spectators present
were Mergner's aged father, John E
Mergner, and a brother. None OF
the defendants children was present.
Guilty of f1rst-degree murder as
charged in the indictment" was the
verdict read by the jury foreman,
James Fitzpatrick, an insurance
company executive.
Mergner received the verdict in
the same stolid calm he has main
tanned since the trial started on
Monday. He stared straight ahead
his face expressionless.
Three-Day Trial.
During the three-day trial, one OF
the swiftest- moving first-degree
murder cases in District history
Government witnesses testified
Mergner attempted to shove Mrs
Robinson down a sewer at Seventh
and A streets NE. after shooting
four bullets into her face and head
in his car.
The Government contended Merg-
ner murdered the blond, attractive
30-year-old divorce after she
spurned his love and offer of mar
riage Mrs. Robinson had twice
married and divorced Wiley Robin
son, a convicted jewel thief now
serving a 10-year term in Leaven-
worth Penitentiary. y
Mergner's deceased wife, Agnes
was the daughter of John Weinberg,
founder of the Weinberg Bakery
later absorbed by the Charles
Schneider Baking Co., where the de-
fendant was employed as a super
visor. Their five children were left
$590,000 trust fund by Mr.. Mein-
berg.
Claimed Alcoholic Stupor.
During the trial Mergner took the
stand in his own defense to contend
that he had been in an alcoholic
stupor at the time of the shooting
and could remember none of the de-
tails surrounding the shooting.
The jurors were told in their final
instructions by Justice Proctor that
voluntary drunkenness alone WASH t
justification for the commission of a
criminal act. They were instructed,
however, to bring in verdict of not
guilty if they believed that excessive
drinking had caused temporary in
sanity at the time of the Staying.
Earlier in the day, the jury heard
First Assistant United States At
torney John w. Fihelly describe
Mergner as "a slab of marble, a man
who is guilty of the most cold
blooded and fiendish murder in the
Districts history"