Jonathan Daniels, in Raleigh News and Observer
Rockingham, Sept. 30—Trial of W.B. Cole, rich slayer of W.W. Ormond, started in earnest here this afternoon when the State began the presentation of evidence on which it will ask Cole’s death by electrocution and the defense laid the groundwork for a plea of insanity in the cross examination of the two witnesses for the State who took the stand. The trial started at 4:20 o’clock, after the selection of a jury from a special venire of 200 citizens of Union county.
All Jurors Married Men
The jury which must determine the fate of Cole is composed of: J.M. Ross, farmer; W.D. Clark, farmer; J.O. Smith, farmer; M.M. Winchester, farmer and farmer-merchant; M.A. Griffin, farmer; J.M. Edwards, merchant; Vester Autry, farmer; I.C. Edwards, farmer; C.E. Rushing, farmer; R.W. Kilough, farmer and gin operator; J.K. Starns, store clerk; and C.O. Howard, cotton farmer. All the jurors are married men with families.
A feature in the selection of the jury was the acceptance by the defense of C.O. Howard, rich cotton farmer, after he had told Solicitor Don Phillips on examination that he had formed the opinion that Cole was guilty. The State passed the juror and the defense, after a brief conference, accepted him also. The action of the defense caused a loud murmur of wonder to pass through the crowded court room.
Following the selection of the jury, the State put Frank Steele, first cousin of Cole, and Mrs. W.A. Wentz, wife of the local Western Union manager, on the stand to tell eye-witness stories of the actual shooting. The defense let Steele on cross examination with a single question but undertook to develop the fact that Cole was acting and looking like a maniac on the cross examination of Mrs. Wentz.
Both Steele and Mrs. Wentz made excellent witnesses but the defense succeeding in securing from Mrs. Wentz an admission that Cole was so wild and white looking that she did not recognize him. He denied that her sister-in-law, Mrs. J.L. Porter, who was with her at the time declared: “He looks so wild and crazy he might shoot us.”
Steele, who took the stand first, stated that he saw Ormond twice on the day of the shooting. Once at dinner time and again just before the shooting. He stated that Ormond came to Everybody’s Filling Station, two doors from the Manufacturers building, where Cole had his office, at about 5 o’clock. The dead man parked his car in front of the Page Motor Company building, which is between the Manufacturers building and the filling station.
Ormond walked out of the driveway of the filling station toward his car and Steele stated that he went to a bench along the wall of the filling station a few feet from Ormond’s car. He picked up a newspaper and began reading it when Ormond was about two steps from him on the way to his car, which was facing away from the Manufacturers building. He said that he looked up once and saw Cole coming out of the Manufacturers building. Then he saw Cole take a pistol from his pocket. He stated that he saw Cole fire the first shot as he came up from the [something missing in article] fired three times, he said. Cole turned away and Steele said that he ran to the car as Cole walked to his office. He called Ormond’s name twice, he said, but the ex-serviceman did not answer. Then, the witness aid, he went to get a doctor but the doctor came before he could find one. Solicitor Phillips conducted the examination.
On cross examination J. Chesley Sedberry, for the defense, asked Steele if he did not move Ormond’s car after the shooting. He admitted that he did.
Mrs. Wentz stood the strain of testifying remarkably well, although she is the mother of a month-old baby, who was born a few days after she witnessed the slaying.
Ormond Sitting in Car
She stated that she and her sister-in-law were walking up town when she saw Cole come down the steps of the Manufacturers building with his arm pointed at the street. She did not recognize him aft first. Cole was walking diagonally across the sidewalk toward Ormond’s car. She did not know Ormond but saw a man lounging in the Ford roadster by the curb. She stated that when Cole was about four feet from the car, he fired the first shot. The man in the car, who had his head turned toward the street, did “nothing at all,” she said when the first shot was fired, Cole walked up to the door of the car, she stated, and fired again. The man in the car reached out his right hand as if to close the door although the door was already closed.
Cole put his arm across the door and swung it back and forth. The man fell back after the second shot, she said, and then fell over the steering wheel after Cole fired the third time. On account of her condition, Mrs. Wentz stated she and her sister-in-law immediately left the scene.
J.A. Lockhart, of the defense, conducted the cross examination of Mrs. Wentz. He asked her about a statement made by Mrs. Porter immediately after the shooting. The State objected but Judge Finley overruled the objection. “Didn’t Mrs. Porter say, ‘He looks so wild he might be crazy and shoot us?” Lockhart asked.
“She did not,” answered Mrs. Wentz. However she testified that she herself said that Cole looked extremely wild.
“He looked so wiled and white that I didn’t at first recognize him,” Mrs. Wentz said. “He had run his hands through his hair and it looked rumpled. I didn’t recognize him until after the first shot.”
She denied that she had stated that Cole looked like a maniac.
She said that Cole had on neither coat nor hat.
Jury Chosen Quickly
The selection of the jury was completed with much greater dispatch than was anticipated by either the State or defense, only 65 members of the special Union county venire were called into the box in the selection, but several others were excused because of illness.
Union county showed a remarkable sentiment against capital punishment in the answers of the prospective jurors. Sixteen of the 65 men called into the box yesterday declared that they had conscientious scruples against capital punishment and were excused by the State on that ground.
Twenty jurors were excused by the defense when they admitted that they had formed the opinion that Cole was guilty. One man was excused because he had formed the opinion that Cole was not guilty and another because he had written a letter of sympathy to Cole after his confinement for the slaying.
Judge Kinley ordered Darby Covington, who was sworn in as the officer to the jury, not to allow the jurors to see newspaper reports of the trial. Judge Finley declared that the press is a great institution, but jurors ought not to see the papers.
The members of both the Cole and Ormond families were present in the courtroom throughout the proceedings today. Mrs. Elizabeth Cole, former sweetheart of the man slain by her father, sat with her mother inside the bar directly behind Cole and his attorneys. Miss Cole was very simply dressed today in contrast with the vivid costume she wore to the arraignment of her father on Monday. Today she had changed a solitaire diamond and platinum diamond ring, which she wars from her engagement ring finger to her right hand.
From page 3 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, October 1, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-10-01/ed-1/seq-3/
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