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Show DETAILS '.OF SHIS TffiffilY RETOLD in mm COURT . - . 1 - Defense in Insurance Suit Tries to Prove Case Was One of Suicide Instead of Murder; "He Was Discouraged," Declares De-clares One Witness. ( In all its horrible details the tragedy connected with' the death in December, 1905, of Nephi M. Sheets, was retold re-told this morning before Federal Judge Marshall in the suit brought by the Sheets heirs against the Preferred Accident Ac-cident Insurance company of New York, to recover the amount of a policy carried by Sheets before his death. Witnesses were placed on the stand by both the prosecution prose-cution and the defense to bring out the state of the weather the night of December 27, 1905, whether or not footprints were discernible in the snow leading to and from the body, and whether the revolver found by the body belonged to Sheets. , THOMAS SHEETS AND ANOTHER ANOTH-ER SON OF THE DEAD MAN WERE PLACED ON THE STAND. THEY FAILED TO IDENTIFY THE HEAVY REVOLVER PLACED IN EVIDENCE AS THAT OF SHEETS. AN EMPTY SHELL WAS ALSO INTRODUCED. THOMAS SHEETS STATED THAT THE CARTRIDGE WAS HANDED HIM BY CORONER SMITH SOME TIME AFTER THE INQUEST, AND THAT FROM IT CAME THE BULLET WHICH ENDED THE LIFE OF HIS FATHER. WEATHER FORECASTER HYATT TESTIFIED AS TO THE WEATHER THE NIGHT OF THE TRAGEDY. FROM DATA HE SAID THAT A LIGHT SNOW FELL THAT NIGHT. T. M'ALLISTER TOLD OF THE CON- ' DITION OF . THE GROUND, AND SAID THAT WHILE HE SAW CERTAIN CER-TAIN IMPRESSIONS IN THE SNOW. HE WAS NOT CERTAIN THEY WERE HUMAN FOOTPRINTS. JAMES M'EEE TESTIFIED IN A SIMILAR MANNER, AND SAID ' THAT WHILE ON HIS WAY HOME THAT NIGHT SHORTLY AFTER 8:30 O'CLOCK, HE SAW THE BODY ON THE GROUND, AND IMMEDIATELY NOTIFIED M'ALLISTER. Milton Barratt of the Western Arms company, for the defense, testified as to th .weight of certain bullets, and aa to the make of the revolver said to hav ' been the ocuse of Sheets' death. Corones Dana T. Smith was called and related derails of the inquest. -Perhaps the most Interesting part of the testimony was that offered by T. B. Burns, a barber in the southeastern part of the city, an Intimate friend of Sheets. "Sheets came to my shop about ten days before his death," said Bums, "and complained that he was not doing very well. "He seemed discouraged, and was despondent de-spondent because the Independent Telephone Tele-phone company, for which he solicited, had cut his salary, and had placed him on a commission basis. 'It's a shame.' said he to me, 'that men of your and my age have to work for such a paltry salary.' sal-ary.' " The prosecution objected vigorously to this testimony, but the court overruled the objection. It was evidently the Intention In-tention of the defense to show that Sheets contemplated suicide even at that time. |