Hertford, Nov. 8—With only a few more witnesses to be heard for the defense, but these including the defendant’s mother, Mrs. Alex Jordan, and his sister, the wife of the man he killed, the trial of young Raymond Jordan for the killing of George Moore, his brother-in-law, entered its closing stages in Perquimans Superior Court early today.
Repeated threats by Moore against Alex Jordan, his father-in-law, and other members of the Jordan family are alleged by the defense in justification of Raymond Jordan’s act. The trend of the testimony today and Saturday showed plainly that these threats, said to have been made when Moore was under the influence of liquor, would be the backbone of whatever arguments defense attorneys might present.
The State had brought a number of new witnesses into court this morning, and all indications pointed to the trial’s going over into another day. Witnesses and jurors for the term of Superior Court beginning at Elizabeth City today have been sent word, through Sheriff Carmine, that court will not be convened there until Saturday morning.
Witnesses for the State put on in rebuttal Monday morning included Will Morgan Jr. of Winfall, W. R. Perry of Chapanoke, Charles Henry madrin, who lives two miles from Winfall, and C. P. Quincey of Chapanoke. Their testimony tended to offset to a degree testimony by the defense as to the violence of Moore when drunk and one of them, C. H. Madrin, testified to hearing Raymond Jordan say after he had been a week in jail that having killed Moore didn’t cause him to lose any sleep, that he didn’t care any more about it than if he had killed a chicken.
That George Moore, her husband, knocked her down on the morning he was killed, and left home telling her that he was going to kill here father and then come back and kill her, was the testimony of Mrs. Moore, when she took the stand as witness for the defense. She also testified that her husband was a dangerous and violent man when he was drunk and that she could still smell whiskey on him when he lay wounded in their home some time after the blows from which he died had been inflicted.
In addition to her testimony of ill treatment by her husband, Mrs. Moore, widow of Raymond Jordan’s act in slaying his brother-in-law, testified that she had told Raymond of Moore’s ill treatment of herself and their children, and had talked with her brother particularly of an alleged incident when, according to a letter from neighbors of the Moores in Detroit put in evidence Saturday, Moore was prevented from braining his infant child by the intervention of neighbors.
Tells of Threats
Mrs. Moore further testified that as he was leaving home to go to Winfall just before the killing he told his two boys to come go with him and see him kill their grandfather.
Other testimony of Mrs. Moore was in corroboration of her father and mother as to what occurred at the Jordan home on the evening before and the morning of the killing.
The second witness of the day for the defense, Mrs. Moore appeared very nervous and had great difficulty in maintain her composure. Her testimony was interrupted from time to time as she gave way to tears.
J. C. Wilson of Chapanoke, witness for the defense, testified Monday morning that Mrs. Moore went to his house on Saturday morning of the killing and told how her husband had left home with pistol and cartridges to kill her father and that he had said he would then return and kill her. She was then, he said, on the way to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Whtehead, where, Mrs. Moore had testified, she went for safety, fearing to stay at home and await her husband’s return.
Will Morgan of Winfall, next door neighbor of the Jordans, testified that Raymond Jordan, though apparently a robust youth, had for a number of years suffered with kidney trouble. He corroborated the testimony of the Jordans as to Moore’s visit to the home on the evening before and the morning of the killing and said that he heard evidence of a quarrel on such occasion. He testified for instance to having heard Moore accuse Jordan of having stuck his hand under a dead man’s bed and got his money.
Morgan testified also that whle he did not see the killing of Moore at White’s store, he arrived soon after the fatal blows had been struck and took a pistol out of the wounded man’s pocket. It was not loaded, the witness testified.
Mrs. Jordan was the first witness to take the stand for the defense this morning. Corroborating testimony of her son and that of her husband earlier in the trial, Mrs. Jordan told of Moore’s visit t her home about 5 o’clock in the morning on the day of his death and about two hours before the trouble occurred which ended in Moore’s death. Moore, she said, was a man of violent temper and deeds when under the influence of liquor and her daughter, Moore’s wife, had been compelled to leave her husband a number of times on that account. She herelf struck Moore over the head with a stick of wood as he was advancing on her husband in the Jordan premises and threatening to kill him, the witness said, after which Moore left threatening to beat his wife to death when he got her home. When Mrs. Moore intimated that in that case she would not go, Moore, Mrs. Jordan testified, said he was not going to hurt her, but intimated that he would “get” somebody else before the day was done.
This, according to the witness, was as Moore drove off, with his wife and children, from the Jordan home. The next intimation that there had been further trouble came, she said, when Raymond returned home that morning and told her of finding Moore astride his father in front of Alphonso Whtie’s store and of hitting him over the head with a scantling. It was from blows inflicted by young Jordan that Moore died later in the Elizabeth City Hospital with a fractured skull.
A Reluctant Admission
On cross examination Mrs. Jordan admitted with evident reluctance that Moore struck no blow in the course of the argument at the Jordan home on the evening before and on the morning of the killing and that the only blow struck there was struck by herself. She also admitted that she had never been truck by Moore and that she had never seen him strike her husband or her son.
J. M. Lane, living two miles from Winfall, testified, following Mrs. Jordan on the stand, to the effect that Moore was crazy, a wild man, when drunk, telling how he went ot Moore’s home with him one night when Moore had been drinking and that Moore tried to him him over the head with a whiskey bottle and also tried to hit Mrs. Moore.
Jodan is represented by Attorneys Charles Whedbee and son, Silas Whedbee, of Hertford, and by Ehringhaus & Hall of Elizabeth City. Solicitor Small is unassisted in the prosecution.
Corroborating his father in telling of threats alleged to have been made against them and other members of the family by Moore while he was drinking, young Raymond Jordan told a colorful tale on the stand Saturday. Hearing and cross-examination consumed an hour and 10 minutes, and at one stage of direct examination, the witness broke down and cried for a few minutes. He regained his composure, and maintained it until the ordeal was ended.
The defendant corroborated his father’s assertion that Moore had threatened the lives of the entire family the night before the killing, and again early the following morning. He said he had started on his bicycle to Jones’s mill, in Winfall, on the day of the tragedy, and met a small colored boy, who told him a man was beating his father.
Then, he said, when he had gone a little father, he met a woman screaming, “Raymond, hurry up! Moore’s killing your father!”
A moment later, he came in sight of the little group in front of Alphonso White’s store, and observed Moore on top of the elder Jordan. Moore struck his father twice, he claimed, as he hurried to the spot, picking up a piece of scantling on the way. He admitted he struck Moore once on the back of the head, and he rolled over. Then, he asserted,Moore tried to rise and he struck him twice more.
. . . .
In corroboration to their allegations of Moore’s violence when he was drinking, the defendants tendered a letter purporting to have been written by Mr. and mrs. F. Rhea of Detroit several years ago while Moore and his family were living there. The letter set forth that Moore ad gotten on a spree and had his infant son, holding him by the feet and about to dash out is brains on the sidewalk when neighbors rushed to the child’s rescue.
On cross-examination, the youth denied all recollection of having declared he hoped Moore was dead, adding that he remembered little or nothing that happened during the day or two after the killing; and in fact, wasn’t in his right mind until after he had been lodged in jail on Monday.
Dr. R. W. Smith of Hertford was the last witness heard Saturday. He told of having visite the elder Jordan shortly after the killing, and of having discovered two large bruises on his body and one under his eye the size of a silver dollar. He expressed the professional opinion that they were caused by blows rather than by pressure.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Monday, Nov. 8, 1926
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