Jonathan Daniels in the Raleigh News and Observer
Rockingham, Oct. 8—With all but five speeches made by the opposing attorneys in the trial of W.B. Cole, at the close of the night session tonight, it appeared that the fate of W.B. Cole would probably go to the jury of 12 tired Union County citizens on Saturday.
The argument today was marked by the brilliant speech of W.C. Douglass, veteran attorney for the State, who poured upon Cole a fiery stream of denunciation for his act in killing young W.W. Ormond, ex-service man and former sweetheart of Cole’s daughter on August 15.
Five More Speeches
With only five speakers left there is a possibility that the arguments may be finished tomorrow night but unless the speeches of the leading lawyers are cut shorter length than those who have preceded them, argument may continue through a part of Saturday.
Judge Finley has received voluminous documents from both State and defense setting out their contentions in the case and also several prayers for instructions from both sides. The State will ask the judge in this charge to definitely state that the virtue of Miss Elizabeth Cole is not an issue in the case. The State counts on this instruction to destroy the “unwritten law” phase of the case on which the attorneys for the State have dealt continually in their argument to the jury. Judge Finley has already rules that Miss Cole’s virtue was not an issue and has ruled out her letters to the dead man and medical testimony as to her virtue on that grounds.
The 12 jurors in the case are beginning to show their utter fatigue at so much talk by the lawyers in the case. All of them are sleepy-eyed and only the most vehement and vigorous remarks stir them from a lethargy of weariness. Occasionally, a juror will stifle a prodigious yawn in the midst of an impassioned appeal.
Mr. Vann declared that “in effect, the State charges that Miss Cole is not virtuous,” by saying Ormond’s letter was a “manly thing.”
He declared that one of the vital issues in the case is “was Miss Cole straight or crooked?” “The State won’t face that,” he said. “She was straight and the State knows it.”
Alleges Strong Arm Tactics
He charged the State with an attempt to “strong arm and coerce this jury to secure a conviction. He declared that a verdict of not guilty “would meet with the righteous commendation of every decent citizen of North Carolina.”
Mr. Pittman in his argument for the conviction presented to the jury the Biblical law on murder. He quoted the Fifth Commandment. Then he quoted from the ninth chapter of Genesis and the sixth verse, “Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, my man shall his blood be shed.”
Blood-Stained Shirt
Mr. Jones in his argument tonight won the close attention of the jury by presenting the shirt Ormond wore when he was killed to refute the self-defense theory of the defense. With the shirt draped over a man, he argued from the position of the blood-stained bullet holes that Ormond could not have been leaning over to get his pistol when he was shot.
He charged that Cole’s testimony was untrue and that Cole was “lying in wait” for Ormond.
“Is life so sweet that a man can afford to blaspheme the great Creator of the universe in such a way as that,” he said in referring to Cole’s statement that a feeling came over him in prayer that he did not have to wait any longer.
Mr. Jones denied that there was any evidence that “slander” leaked out through Ormond. He said that the only evidence was that it came out before the homicide through friends of Cole and Fred W. Bynum’s letters to Ormond.
Mr. Boggan made the argument on the basis of the letters in which he maintained that any man would have done what Cole did. He praised Cole and drew an ugly picture of the dead man. He spoke under disadvantages to a sleepy jury.
Although the crowds in the courtroom seemed to have diminished this morning people poured in throughout the day again packed the courtroom and put standing room at a premium. Within the bar of the court, however, the congestion has been relieved. Several newspaper men have gone home and lawyers in the case who are not speaking spend much of their time out of the courthouse or in a smoking room.
The Ormond and Cole families continue to occupy the same seats which they have held since the beginning of the trial.
From page 7 of The Concord Daily Tribune, Oct. 9, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-10-09/ed-1/seq-7/
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