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Show i Youth Is Found Guilty Of Murder At Drinking Party RETURNS 1ROM IIOSi'lTAL Klwood Hnl has returned to his 1 home here from the L. D. S. hos- pital where he has been confined ' for nearly a year. He is suffering ; from the effects of a broken leg ! and will probably return to the ' hospital within a mont!J. VALPARISO, Ind., March 11 u.R) Virgil Kirkland, young Gary athlete, was found guilty last night of murdering Arlenc Draves at a di inking party and his punishment was fixed at life imprisonmont. The jurors nine farmers and three tredesmen who listened for H days to evidence in one of the most dramatic trials in Indiana's hUtory, were out three hours and 2 minutes, most of which time was spent at dinner. Their verdict, which left the 20-year-old defendant and his lawyers stunned, was read in a pneked courtroom by Judge Grant Crum-packer Crum-packer at 8:40 o'clock last night. Attorney Barrat O'Hara of the defense staff indicated he would ask for a new trial, a motion which under Indiana law, need not be made immediately. "It was what he deserved.' was the comment i.f Charles Draves, father of 18-year-old Arlene, whose bruised bodv was returned to him after she left home the night of Inst Nov. 29 with Kirkiand. The verdict was a compromise between the stateVs demand for the death penalty cn;lMhe defense plea for acquittal. In reaching it. the jury found Miss Draves had died from blows rather than from the criminal attacks with which Kirkland Kirk-land and four companions were charged. Judge Crumpackcr's instructions outlined 22 possible verdicts, ranging rang-ing from assault end battery to murder by attack. Had the jury found Kirkland ur.il ty of murder either by attack or attempt to attack, at-tack, the death p malty would have been mandatory. j Kirkland's mother, who had 'eft j the trifll as Prosecutor John Un- , rierwood pictured her boy as an "inhuman beast" and demanded his life, became hysterical when the verdict was read. I |