Show BURCHEEL IS GUILTY The Judge Sentences Him to be l get THE FOURTEENTH QF NOVEMBER The Evidence for the Defense was Weak and its Presentation had no Influence a With the Jury WOODSTOCK Ont Sept 29This is expected ex-pected t be the last day of the trial of Burchell Interest in the case has steadily risen until now i exceeds anything ever known in a Similar case in the history of Canadian criminal jurisprudence I Blackstock for the defense spoke five spok fve hours Ho reflected on the alleged reck less methods of the prosecution and apparently appa-rently careless manner in winch the witnesses wit-nesses for the crown seemed ready to swear away a mans life In his summing up of the evidence bearing on Burchells identity iden-tity and discussing the moral character of his client he said he must admit his utter inability to point out an explanation of the course observed by Burchell which would be consistent with his innocence of hishon est porposes The only explanation of Burchells statements to Pelly and Ben well in inducing them t come out there which Blackstock could offer was that Burchell expected to secure through them money to enable him to go into business and make good his promises He denounced the manner of conducting the identification of prisoners as disgrace ful The time would come when the mss tery shrouding the crime would be cleared away He closed with a touchinsr reference to the devotion of Mrs BurchellT Burchel Ostler closed the case for the crown Ho reviewed the story in denial and analyzed Burchells negotiations with Benwell into one facta plan to entrap young Benwell Benwel to Canada on representations heltnew would be shown to be false tHe moment he arrived in Canada His motive was to secure se-cure 500 He detailed Burclfells dealings Buici lls dealngs with Policy and said the outcome of nil the fraud and deception could bo but one thing and that was the Blenheim swamp The jury retired at 930 tonight The judge in his charge to the jury reviewed re-viewed many points in the case and at length he pointed out the difference be tween direct and circumstantial evidence showing that the latter when conclusive was far more reliable He reverted to the letters written by the prisoner to Cone wells father What was the object of those letters All was deception and the prisoner must have known that Benwell would never write such a letter to his father The condition of the clothing dn the body found disproved the theory of the defense that the murder was not for plan der Every mark on the clothing was removed re-moved and had it not been for finding a cigar holder Benwells death would always have remained a mystery The jury retired at 030 and returned with a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree When asked if he had anything to say why sentence should nofbe passcduptm him Bnrchall tb pass tp n Burchal replied simply I am not guilty of murder The judge then said I fully concur with the verdict of the jury and sencenced Burchail to hang the 14th of November |