Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-02-06 | Page 1 | Mrs. Laura Barker Gives Reason for Purchase of Poison

MRS. LAURA BARKER GIVES REASONS FOR PURCHASE OF POISON Woman Accused of Slaying Her Husband Says That She Wanted to Make Mixture That Would Keep Her From Contracting Mate's Malady. yilF. i-;isc of Mrs. Laura Barker, mother of three young children, who La charged with murder in the first degree in connection with the death last July of her husband, Charles Lee Barker, a railroad man, tvill go to the jury tomorrow. This became known at the conclus- . ; ion of the proceeding ln Judge Geo-1 S. Barker's court yesterday afternoon. District Attorney Joseph E. Evans announced an-nounced that he had Just one more! witness to examine in rebuttal. The contlnuarfce until Monday was' ordered by Judge Barker over the protest of George Halverson, of coun-t sol for Mrs Barker who said the case 'should have been completed yester- i day. MN ox STAND. Mrs Barker's testimony in her own' behalf was the outstanding feature of j csterday's proceedings. She gave an, explanation as to why she had pur-i chased arsenic, a deadly poison, at Bancroft, Idaho, last June The witness declared a woman friend had informed her that she should protect herself from the chronic chron-ic disease with which her husband was afflicted This woman urged her to make- a preparation with arsenic as I a base, the witness said That was I why sho bought the poison from the , Idaho druggist, Mrs Barker said. She , was visiting a brother near Bancroft at the lime, she said. With only one witness t0 bo heard, the case for and against Mrs. Barker is substantially as follows: AS! AGAINST WOM . Th- slate has offered evidence that! Barker died July 9 from the effects of arsenic. That Mrs. Barker had purchased arsenic from an Iduho druggist a few days before the death of Barker. In addition there was evidence that the relations between the Barkers had not been happy since the discovery that Barker had a serious disease-There disease-There is furthermore the evidence of Dr R E. Worrell to the effect that! Barker told him that he had not purposely pur-posely taken poison. HER II I I V- i The defense on the other hand has introduced evidence to the effect that Barker was often despondent because of his affliction. And Mrs. Barker explains ex-plains that her purtrraM of the s.r-isflte s.r-isflte was prompted by her deslro to protect herself from the disease from Which the husband was suffering. Mrs. Barker early ln her testimony told of a man, named Esplnoza, who had paid her attentions and who had been ordered to leave town by the husband. POINT BLANK QUESTION. In cross-examining Mrs- Barker District Attorney Evans asked her point blank "Did not you and Espmoza plot to poison your husband and didn't Es-pinoca Es-pinoca tell him about it? Wata't this the reason your husband and he were at outs?" "No. sir," was the vigorous reply to both of these questions. The district attorney also sough i to show that Mrs. Barker had denied purchasing a poison. DBTB JTTVE OAJLLED. The district attorney called Detective Detec-tive R. H Wootton and over the vigorous vig-orous objections from Mr. Halveraon obtained from the witness the Information Infor-mation that .Mm Barker had denied buying any poison until police offl-cerj offl-cerj told '" r Of the evidence they had uncovered Wootton said that then Mrs. Barker told them Bhe had made the purchase but had purchased the poison to kill rats. The question as to whether Mrs. Barker had received men visitors Bitot Bi-tot h i luiHl and's death brought another an-other series of objections from the woman's attorney. MN DEPART, The district attorney put Adrian ;i rlothlng Btore, clerk, on the stand. He said he lived near the Barker Bar-ker home and that on three occasions he had seen a man leave Mrs Bar-I Bar-I ' r 's home early In the morning. Mr rlalverson asked him If he was sure this was not a Mr. Stevens, a neighbor, and the witness was unable to say for sure whether it was or was, not. Judge Barker's courtroom was, thronged with nen, women and children chil-dren who seomod to take tho greatest great-est Interest In the proceedlni;s Thbs is the first time, within the memory of court attaches, that a White woman has been on trial hero oi the hai ge ol murder In tho 1 j ' degree