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Show YOUTH REFUSES TO EXPLAIN WHY HE KILLED PAL Clearing of Mystery May Decide the Fate of Confessed Con-fessed Slayer. Texarkann, Texas. Clearing of the mystery as to what started an argument argu-ment which resulted In Lester Cooper, Coop-er, twenty-one, shooting to death hla boyhood friend of years, Paul Hunter, twenty-three, In an undertaker's morgue here may decide the fata of the confessed slayer. "I didn't want to do It, but I had to," Is Cooper's reply to queries as to why he killed his roommate a few minutes after they had scuffled In the undertaking establishment on Sunday, April 27. The youthful slayer Is being held under $10,000 bond for action of the Bowie county (Texas) grand Jury. All witnesses testified that the two youths had been Inseparable friends and roommates for several years. What brought about the tragedy Is known only to Cooper and he remains silent. Cornish Malone, companion worker of the pair, testified that he was working In a room near that In which Cooper and Hunter were embalming em-balming and heard them arguing and heard one call the other a "liar." He said they started scuffling and that he rushed Into the room to Intercede. - Friend Intercede. Richard Harding, friend of both Cooper and Hunter, took the former into his room and argued with him to "forget his trouble with Hunter." "Suddenly," he testified, "Cooper dashed to his trunk, obtained a pistol, jn?Wlli 'IT lSfr'J 'mm Was Shot Twice. and rushed back to the room where Hunter wns proceeding with his work." Malone testified that he saw Cooper enter the room and level his gun at Hunter and start firing before he could stop hiin. Hunter was shot twice, In the chest, and the stomach. "Let's go, I'm shot in the stomach," were the only words uttered by Hunter Hunt-er after he was shot, Malone and Harding testified. They rushed him to a hospital, where he died three hours later. "I was so drunk I didn't know what 1 was doing," Cooper told officers a few minutes after being taken to jail. Malone and Harding both testified that Cooper had been drinking, but County Attorney L. C. Boswell pointed out that although Cooper may have been drinking, he "knew what he was doing do-ing when he -got his gun from a trunk, walked down a hall, and shot Hunter across a large room." Killer's Face Bruised. All efforts to determine what caused the youths to star, their fatal argument argu-ment proved futile, Malone and Harding, Har-ding, the only two witnesses, declaring declar-ing that the first they knew of the trouble was when they heard one call the other a "liar," followed by the scuffle. Officers said that Cooper had a bruise on his face and others on his knees when he was taken to jail. Defense Attorney J. Q. Mahaffey was successful in obtaining bond for Cooper on the contention that no malice aforethought was shown In the killing and that It is not a capital punishment case In that the Texas law provides that malice must he shown in killing in order for the death penalty to be Inflicted. Cooper is a son of the deceased Sheriff John Cooper of Titus county, Texas. |
