Show HE WINGED THE COOK But Will Probably Pay Dearly For His Sport THE CASE AGAINST PALMER A Verdict of Guilty of Assault Will Intent to Murder The Sweeney Case The first business transacted before Judge Sandford yesterday was the admission ad-mission to citizenship of Nils 0 Olson formerly of Norway but now a resident of Utah County JOSEPH c PERRY of Brighton stepped forward and listened lis-tened to the reading of an indictment charging him unlawful cohabitation He entered a plea of not guilty and retired THE ALTA TROUBLE The little mountain town of Alta furnished another case for judge and jury yesterday This was the case of the People of the Territory of Utah vs Robert Palmer who stood charged with an assault with intent to murder John Davis on the 5th of July last at Alta Palmer is a young man of sallow complexion black eyes and weighing probably 150 pounds He was represented by Henry Wyman Davis is a goodlooking young man heavyset heavy-set and nearly six feet in height He sat near Mr Clarke the prosecutor Asa As-a result of the encounter with Palmer he now uses a pair of crutches his right leg having been amputated at the thigh For the first time probably in the historv of the court at least for some years past in a case of such importance none of the first twelvojurors called were excused for cause and none were peremptorily excused JOHN DAVIS the young man assaulted was the first witness called I came he said from Rock Island Illinois about six months ago I stayed in Ogden a few days then came to Salt Lake and subsequently subse-quently went to Alta where I was employed em-ployed by Mr Wallace as cook I entered en-tered his employ on the 15th of June on the 5th of July Robert Palmer shot me it was about 2 oclock In the after noon of that day I met Palmer twice on that day previous to the shooting but did not speak to him I was standing stand-ing leaning up against tho kitchen door the day being warm when Palmer came past and went into the bunk house In about two minutes he came out with a gun said you son of a and shot me in tho right leg I then grabbed him and we had a souffle I called for the boys and they finally got the pistol away from him The boys got a door and carried me to the depot where they put me on board the train for Salt Lake My leg was amputated at the Sisters Hospital the day afterwardson the 6th by Dr Pinkerton I had no troublo With him on the day of the shooting About a week before however Palmer came in after meal hours and wanted a meal Several others were in the dining din-ing room and I told them they would have to stop it One of the men then got up and locked the door Palmer asked me to open it but I told him I couldnt because I had no key He went away muttering something but I did not know what it was 1 never had any trouble previous to that or afterwards af-terwards and never had any crosswords cross-words with him I was not armed on the day in question or at any other time I neyer carried a pistol or a knife as I thought I was big enough to defend de-fend myself I am a little over 22 years of age and a cook by trade the ball entered my leg about two inches below where it is amputated and ranged down half of it coming out of the back of the leg the other half remaining in JOHN H DALLIN testified that he saw the difficulty between John Davis and Robert Palmer and all his evidence was corroborative of that given by Davis The gun taken from Palmer was a 44 single action I took the pistol pis-tol away from Palmer I did not strike him but I put my knee on his throat in order to compel him to release his hold Davis was not armed at the time of the firing when I asked Palmer why he had shot Davis he said he came up towing to-wing the cook and had did it THE COUBT A technical term I suppose sup-pose MR CLARKE Yes sir sportsmen understand it Herman Tagges testimony was of but little importance and at its conclusion the prosecution rested FOR THE DEFENSE Palmer himself was called His story was to the effect that he was a miner and had lived in Alta for some time In Julylast I was boarding at the Emma boarding house and worked in the Emma mine between 1 and oclock on the 5th of July last I was on my way to the boarding house from Wallaces store a distance of between 400 and 500 feet I went up alone and on my way I met a couple of men I stopped and talked with them for a few moments and wenton to the boarding house where I was intending to change my clothes and go to work At the boarding house 1 met Dallin and Davis who were standing near the door I did not I speak to them nor they to me I went into the bunk house Davis and Dalnn were talking but I could not tell what they said Dallin went back in and Davis came toward me when he got close to me he had one hand behind him and in a threatening manner asked ime what in hell I was doing there I thought there was going to be trouble from his looks and the fact that he had one hand concealed I made no reply but rushed into the bunkhouse bunk-house to get out of his way I went to my bunk grabbed a sixshooter and ran out of the side door I intended to i leave the boarding house and go away I got the pistol to defend myself I was not in the habit of carrying a gun when I went into the house Davis was close by and he grabbed me as I came out a scuffle followed and he grabbed hold of the pistol as I was trying to gel into the waistband of my pants The sun was not cocked and was a single aolion At the time he grabbed the pistol it was discharged and he had hold of it at the time I told him if he would leave go of the gun I wouldnt hurt him and when I heard the report I did not know it was from my gun His tale was a most dreary one and if all the jurors had fallen asleep they t > N 6 > could scarcely have been deemed guilty of contempt To Mr Clarke he said he had never had an examination nor waived au examination He never had been convcted of any offense and had never been inside of a prison before He had been in Utah fourteen years Clarkes rigorous crossexamination tied the witness up so thoroughly and to such an extent as to doubtless cause the fellow fel-low to wonder whether he was a 1315 14 puzzle or suffe ing from an acute attack of nightmare H C WALLACE was called and testified testi-fied to the reputation of the defendant which had been goodS good-S C EWIKG was sworn for a similar purpose and knew nothing against the defendant Samuel Stringham was also willing to swear that he had never heard anything against the defendant Michael McMinn thought the defendant 0 K as regards reputation for peace ableness etc and the evidence closed The case was briefly argued and the jury rendered a verdict of guilty as charged Had no other evidence been offered than that given by the defendant defen-dant himself it would have betn sufficient suffi-cient to convict him remarked one disgusted spectator as heleft the courtroom court-room Palmer will be sentenced on Saturday Satur-day IN THE SWEENEY CASES CASE-S H Lewis counsel for the defense moved for an arrest of judgment The matter was argued at considerable length and taken under advisement |