Ogden Daily Standard | 1917-04-14 | Page 11 | Joseph Murdock is Found Guilty

JOSEPH IIHCK IS FOUND GUILTY Joseph Murdock, a carpenter and farmer, father of nine children, indicted indict-ed for a statutory offense, committed a month ago, last night was found guilty by a jury in District Judge Alfred Al-fred W. Agee's court. Tho verdict was unanimous. The maximum penalty is three years in the penitentiary. Mrs. Fannie Belle Wilbur, the woman wom-an In the case, Is on trial today. Former District Judge Nathan J. Harris made an eloquent but futile plea for mercy in behalf of Murdock. The defendant himself implored tho jury to be lenient, because his offense was committed while he was crazed by whisky. He proved by several good citizens that ho was so drunk he did not know what he was doing and that his previous deportment was good. The conviction was based upon the . the actual commission of the crime . alleged was entirely lacking, but the jury considered the probabilities and I convicted Murdock because his presence pres-ence In the house had the appearance . of eyil and because the Jurors agreed that deliberate over-indulgence in 11-. 11-. quor is no excuse for law breaking. The highly dramatic feature of the trial was the appearance of Eljsha Wilbur, husband of the woman, as a witness for the state. He is an old man in poor health. In a voice quavering quav-ering with complaint and indignation Mr. Wilbur told of his marital woes. Ho said he obtained a divorce from the woman, but remarried her sixteen years ago. He did not obtain a second sec-ond divorce, ho said, because he did not consider it worth while. He had not lived with his wife fpr many years and she had gone from bad to worse. Mrs. Wilbur's son, John Wilbur, is in a cell in the county jail adjoining her own, charged with horse stealing. He is wanted in another place on a charge of burglary.