Rockingham, Oct. 10—The case of the state against W.B. Cole, wealthy cotton manufacturer, charged with murder, was given to the jury at 12:40 o’clock today.
After 36 hours of argument, Judge T.B. Finley read the court’s charge and the jury retired to decide the guilt or innocence of Cole, who killed W.W. Ormond, formerly the sweetheart of his 24-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Cole.
The court room was packed. The doors were closed to the coldest day of the two weeks’ trial, and the winter garments vied with bright colored clothes of warmer days as the room settled back to await the verdict.
The defendant, nervous throughout the appeal of Solicitor Phillips for an “even handed justice” sat with his family. To their right, someone removed, sat the Rev. A.L. Ormond, father of the dead man, and his two daughters. They were silent and undemonstrative.
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Richmond County Court House, Rockingham, Oct. 10 (AP) The three subjects in the trial of W.B. Cole about which were centered the bitterest arguments are not issued in the wealthy cotton manufacturer’s trial for murder, Judge T.B. Finley charged a Union County jury today.
The character of Miss Elizabeth Cole, the war record of W.W. Ormond, formerly her sweetheart, and the man her father killed, and the financial position of the Cole and Ormond families are extraneous matters, Judge Finley said.
One of four verdicts will be returned by the jury that today begins its deliberations after one of the most sensational trials in the state.
W.B. Cole may be found guilty of murder in the first degree, of murder in the second degree, of manslaughter, or he may be declared not guilty.
After giving the laws defining each, the charges defined a jury’s proper attitude toward the two defenses offered by Cole, self-defense and insanity.
“If you should find from the evidence that the defendant entered into the fight willingly and that the deceased started to get his pistol and then the defendant had reasonable grounds to believe, and did believe that he was about to be killed or receive some great bodily harm at the hands of the deceased, he would at least be guilty of manslaughter.”
“The defendant pleads transitory insanity. As to whether the defendant weas insane at the time of the homicide is a matter of fact for you to determine. I charge you that before the defendant can be justified in killing the deceased on the grounds of insanity, that he should show to the satisfaction of the jury that at the time of committing the deed he was insane and did not know right from wrong, or did not know what he was doing was wrong at the time of committing the deed.
“By interposing the plea of insanity or transitory, the defendant says by his plea that he did the killing, but the act is not one for which he can be held responsible. The court charges you, whether the defendant has a mental disease or not, is a question of fact as to whether he had a bodily disease or not, if the question were raised.
“The court charges you, gentlemen of the jury, that no man has a right to kill another in North Carolina for slandering his family. Slander is a crime and the law provides a penalty for it, but it is not the death penalty. The court further charges you that no man has a right to kill another because he was threatened by him; a threat alone not being sufficient to justify killing. But you are to try the case under law and evidence.
“The law is no respecter of persons. It is the same thing in its application to all, whether they be high or low, rich or poor, prince or pauper, white or black, Jew and Gentile, Greek or barbarian, even in the exact justice as it is meted out to all alike.
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Richmond County Court House, Rockingham, Oct. 10 (AP)—The trial of W.B. Cole, wealthy cotton manufacturer, charged with murder, approached an end today with the last argument of the state.
Solicitor Don Phillips, appealing for an “even handed justice,” declared that the mothers of North Carolina are listening for the verdict.
Cole, who last August 15 shot and killed W.W. Ormond, formerly his daughter’s sweetheart, heard the prosecutor charge that the unwritten law was painted in bold letters across the “smoke screen” of his defense.
Solicitor Phillips closed his argument at 10:20 o’clock and the court declared a brief recess while Judge T.B. Finley confirmed with the court stenographer about the charge. The jury left the room.
A buzz of conversation bandied from wall to wall as the crowded court room waited the formal close of the two weeks’ trial.
From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Oct. 10, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-10-10/ed-1/seq-1/
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