OCR Text |
Show S MARTEV IS ON TRIAL FOR SHOOTIJVGOFEDWARDS 11 f Having Created a Reign of Terror in Ojrden- Which llf Culminated in the Blowing Un nf Ik u r 11 T v l - , , wn& up or the Home or ,. 1 LeRoy Eccl ad the Wounding of David Ed- fl w"d Detective-Obtaining of a Jury Promwei to be a Most Difficult Task. I ll Another chapter In the biography Hf.of Joseph Henry Martin, In relation Eg; to his connection with the alleged as. M: sault with intent to murder Detectivo a, David Edwards on Seventeenth street M November 9, 1913, was opened in H Judge J. A. Howell's division of the ft district court this morning when the ml case was called for trial. W Martin and his attorney, Soren X. m ChriBtcnsen, were in court and the M. attorney announced that thev were 1 ' ready for trial. The state was represented repre-sented by District Attorney John C. Davis and District Attorney E. O. . Leatherwood of the Third district, the latter attorney conducting the ex- (.irninatlon of talesmen called to the jury box. There were forty-one talesmen tales-men in the court room when the case was called and eight of them were I r Immediately summoned to the jury box for examination touching their qualifications to act as trial jurors. The court announced, in answer to Attorney Chrlstensen, that, as tales-; tales-; men were excused for cause their j places would be filled, and that the process ,of elimination for cause .would be pursued until the box was Cull at which pre-emptory challenges j' would bo exercised as to the men in the box, and those not so challenged would be sworn as jurors, i Mr. Chrlstensen propounded prac-tlcally prac-tlcally the same questions to all, em-f em-f pbasizing particularly the questions I! touching upon bias and prejudice, ! knowledge of the facts in the case as ! 'given by the newspapers or otherwise, other-wise, and also as to acquaintance with the multiplicity of witnesses, , pot only in the case at bar, but those . who appeared before the Weber coun- ty grand jury on robbery charges S. against Mr. Martin where indict-V:mentB indict-V:mentB were found. The questioning f. on the part of Mr. Chrlstensen was very brief with most of the talesmen, "early all of whom Immediately an-u an-u nounced their views respecting the : raEe, saying, they had formed an opinion opin-ion that would require evidence to remove. II Mr. Leatherwood did not resist the 1) challenge for cause after being con-Rvlnced con-Rvlnced that the proposed juror was ; "biased, or had formed' an opinion that ; ! would prejudice him in rendering a i, fair verdict. i Attorney Chrlstensen states that, 5 p if it is possible to get a fair and ini-', ini-', l. partial jury in the case, he will be ; i content to try it before Judge How-! How-! f" ell, otherwise he will ask for a j change of venue. He says that he ' will examine talesmen for a number j o' days in an effort to get a jury here j and that he -will not make a motiou I for change of trial until the expira-E expira-E tlon of that time, or until such time as it will be clear to the court and f the attorneys for the state that an j Impartial jury cannot be procured f from the list of 400 summoned to act i as jurors during the year. It is not ' expected that a jury can be secured 1 from the forty-one talesmen now be-1 be-1 fore the court. f " Relating to the "charge against Martin, Mar-tin, it will be recalled that on the H L evening of November 8, L. R. Eccles ! ' received a letter from an unknown person advising him that at some ( time during the night he would be required re-quired to turn over to the writer a f i certain amount of money on penalty I f of injury of some sort if he refused. : It was stated In the latter that Mr. i Eccles would be called some time ; during the night to be advised as to , ( the exact time the money should be t delivered and the exact spot and ' ' manner of its delivery. The writer i I especially cautioned Mr. Eccles to re-' re-' main where he could easily hear the , ' telephone, as there could be no time fixed for the call. 'i Mr. Eccles .followed the Instructions, Instruc-tions, but, In the meantime, made arrangements ar-rangements with David Edwards, a : rdetectlve, to be on hand at his residence resi-dence on Eccles avenue at a mo- inent's notice. The telephone call came at about 2:30 in the morning, , which was Sunday morning, and the blackmailer told Mr. Eccles to per- sonally come to a point near the Ore-I Ore-I gon Short Line tracks on "WeBt Seventeenth Sev-enteenth street at about 4 o'clock ; with $1500 In a satchel. He was told to drive a horse and buggy as far as B ' the Intersection of Seventeenth 2' Mreet and Washington avenue whore 3" . 4 ' the rig was to be tied and Mr. Eccles was to continue his way to theplace designated, alone and afoot with the money. The understanding was that, u the man demanding the money did not accost him on his way westward, he was to retrace his steps from a point just beyond the railroad tracks and return eastward along the street. Detective Edwards and Detective Blair were called by Mr. Eccles, and Mr. Edwards, dressed In Mr Eccles' clothing, was started out' on the perilous mission. Mr. Blair rode con. cealed in the buggy, ready, if they encountered the bandits before reaching reach-ing Seventeenth street, to open fire. Ho remained In the vicinity where the horse and buggy were tied. Detective Edwards armed with a sawed-off shotgun and two revolvers, proceeded on foot along Seventeenth street to a point near the railroad tracks where he heard a voice from ambush which commanded him to stop. On obeying the order, Edwards turned around and was partially facing fac-ing the east when he was met by a fusillade from sawed-off shotguns. He fell bleeding to the ground virtually riddled with bullets. However, he returned the fire as best he could and he says that he is certain he shot one of the bandits. He saw two men skulking in tho weeds by the side of the road and observed them retreat under his firing. Mr Edwards was taken to the 'hospital 'hos-pital seriously wounded, and, in the meantime, officers and citizens undertook un-dertook to follow the bandits. Tracks were observed when daylight came on Sunday morning going northward from the scene of tlfe battle, but they could be traced only a short distance, and all were at a loss to know who the bandits might be. The despera- , does ran away without trying to get i the satchel containing the money, i they evidently arriving at the conclusion con-clusion that the supposed Eccles with the money was nothing more than a traveling arsenal in discuise. Various clues were followed by the officers and government detectives and a reward, of about $17,000, was offered for the apprehension and conviction con-viction of the guilty parties. A number of circumstances led to the arrest of Joseph Henry Martin at his home in the early part oh December, Decem-ber, among them that he was soon after found to be limping and it was learned that he ha'd been shot. Another An-other was that he had arranged to be present at a cock-fight at the Fail-Grounds Fail-Grounds the morning of the shooting, but did not make his appearance, and still another wns that he had been seen at Morgan Sunday night with buckshot in his legs. His handwrlt-I handwrlt-I ing was compared with tho handwriting handwrit-ing in the letters addressed to Mr. Eccles, all tending to connect with the shooting of the detective. Martin was given a preliminary hearing at Pleasant View before Justice Jus-tice of the Peace R. T. Rhees. and bound over to the district court under un-der a bond of $20,000, which he was unable to procure. The bond was afterwards reduced to $12,000, but the defendant could not raise that amount and, as a result, he has been in the county jail, In solitary confinement. The officers report that Martin attempted at-tempted to break jail by sawing the iron rods that attached his bunk to his cell wall and in preparing to saw the iron bars of an outer window, which led to freedom. Aside from the 41 talesmen there were but few people In the court room this morning when the case was called and most of the spectators departed de-parted when they discovered that it undoubtedly would be a number of days before the testimony would be Introduced. Mr. Martin's wife took a seat close to him after the bailiff opened court and she was accompanied by Mrs. Nellie Cook, a cousin. J. F. Martin, an uncle, was in the court room Just before the opening of the court, but did not remain to hear the examination- of the men in the jury box. Martin was clean shaven and his hair had been recently trimmed. He wore a white shirt and collar and a dark suit of clothes. His face was unusually pale but contained enough color to indicate that he was In good health and had not fared badly at the hands of the county sheriff. He was attentive to the court proceedings proceed-ings and consulted frequently with his attorney, Tho first eight men called to the jury box wore W. S. FlewelHng, Charles Parker, W. E. Smout, Isaac Beltman, J. B. Wallace, John Qulnn, C. C. RasmusBen and Murray J. Jacob. Ja-cob. The first to be examined were FJc-welling, FJc-welling, Barker, Smout, Beltman and Wallace, all of whom, except Smout, were excused for cause, they having stated that they entertained unqualified unquali-fied opinions in the case. The examination ex-amination of Mr. Smout was passed by the attornoy for the defendant with the understanding that he could further fur-ther question him for cauee at a future time. The facts in the case before the court have been published in the 1 papers completely and it 1b said by tho attorneys that there will be but few additional points to be presented to the jury. It Is certain, of course, that a thorough examination of the defendant's handwriting, aB compared with that found in the letter to Mr. Eccles, will be entered into and it Is said that there will be more detallB respecting Martin's trip to Morgan on the day of the alleged shooting. While the examination of jurors does not disclose what the defendant's attorney will do in case the state makes acase against his client, but it is understood from what has trans-pired trans-pired in the past that the defense will be an alibi. There will be many witnesses wit-nesses examined on the part of the state and it is also said that tho defendant de-fendant will have a large number of witnesses to testify for him. An alibi, of course, will upfeet the whole theory of the case advanced by the prosecution and there is 6ome anxiety just now as to whether the defendant will be able to prove it. There are other charges pending against Martin, as a result of recent grand jury indictments and it is said that they all will be brought before the court for trial immediately following fol-lowing the present cast. It is possible, pos-sible, too. that the federal grand jury will find additional Indictments against him for the Bame alleged offense, of-fense, so that it wll mean a long siege of trials touching tho nefarious work of blackmail. The four indictments against Martin Mar-tin charging him with robbing Mrs. Elizabeth Wallen (known as Mrs McLaren-Boyle-Wallen) of $100, October Octo-ber 28, 1P11; the robbing of Mrs. G. W. Culver of Jewelry, December 1G, 1911 ; robbery of Leo Jensen and John Lambert of $1000, April 8, 1913, and the attempt to destroy the home of L, R. Eccles with giant powder, November 3. 1913 (Continued on Page S) oo MARTI 01 TIL FOB SHOOTING (Continued from Page Seven,) Afternoon Session. Continuing the examination this afternoon af-ternoon of the original eight men, C. C. Rasnius6eu and Murray J. Jacobs were eliminated for cause, Mr. Quinn, being retained for further questioning for cause. Other talesmen called to the box were Henry Kissel, II. L. Shurtlifr, II. H. Shurtliff, H. E. Lund, O. E. Savage, H. E. Foulger, George S. Barry, Robert C. Carr, Joseph Giles and James A. Knight of whom Mr. Lund, Mr. Foulger, Mr. Kissel and Mr. Barry were eliminated and H. H. and H. L. Shurtliff were retained for further fur-ther examination. Special Venire. At 12 o'clock the following special, venire was drawn: Heber Scowcroft, William Moyes, Joseph O. Read, Albert P. Ballinger, William W. Skeen, M. Charles Wood, Joseph Folkman, John C. Hunter, Alex Hoggail, Ammon Allen, Wallace W. Boyle, Angus Kennedy, Alfred A. Ko-food, Ko-food, Matthew J. DInsdale, Owen Hal-verson, Hal-verson, W II. Draney, Andrew Anderson, An-derson, Frank Foulger, James G. McKay, Mc-Kay, Henry Wessler, James L. Rob-son, Rob-son, James F. Hunter; Joseph A. Hutchlns, Reuben M. Wright, Andrew J. Shupe, John W. Hobson, George J. Reeder, Carl Allison, J. M. Forris tall, Thomas Newey, James L. Combe, Thomas F. Farr, Ezra R. Hadley, J. G. WIddison, Charles II. Gosling, A1-' fred Dixon, George W. Gaymon, J, J. Gilles, Ralph P. Hunter, K. W. Meok, Joseph Blanch, Eph C. Christiansen, W. W. Crossman, Joseph E. Wright. Janies J. Barker, George A. Graves, Frank L. Wright, William Stimpson, Lawrence Taylor, George J. Bitton. |