Patrick County Virginia USGenWeb Archives News.....Two Patrick County Freed of Murder of David Cox March 10, 1928
************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm
************************************************
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ron Martin cindyandron@bellsouth.net February 21, 2022, 10:11 pm
The Danville Bee March 10, 1928
Two Patrick County Freed of Murder of David CoxMarked Feeling Ran Through Trial
And Memory of Many Witnesses Failed ConvenientlyArguments Consumed Most of
Yesterday Afternoon
Special to the Bee
STUART, VAMarch 10Finish was written here last night to one of the worst
mountain tragedies in many years when Ernest Shelton and Ora Turner were
acquitted by a jury of killing David Cox at Fayerdale on February 7th, 1926.
The jury remained out for an hour and five minutes. After the verdict was
returned relatives of the slain youth withdrew with state counsel to an ante
room all wearing a bitter look and returned within ten minutes to move the court
that a nolle prosequi be entered in the case of Maynard Cox of whose murder the
two Fayerdale youths also were tried.
Had the case gone to trial Ernest Shelton would have been on record as having
killed him for he admitted shooting Maynard on the stand in the Dave Cox case.
Practically all of yesterday afternoon was consumed by arguments by attorneys
there being six on each side. S.A. Thompson opened for the state was followed
by Paul Sanford for the defense. Then Murray Hooker spoke for the defense
followed by H.L. Fagge of Leaksville for the state leaving William L. Joyce to
make the closing plea for the defense and Commonwealth's Attorney R.E. Woolwine
for the state who asked for the conviction of the two youths of second degree
murder and penitentiary terms of 20 years.
The final oratory was designed to stir the jury and included heavy cross
attacks on the state and defense case. The defense relied almost wholly on the
vital testimony drawn from state and defense witnesses who appeared on the
previous day and who admitted that the body of Dave Cox bore two wounds under
the right armpit that these bullets were .45 caliber shells and that Turner Hall
was the only person at the shooting armed with an automatic of that size.
The state had, however, built up a strong case and argued to the jury that
there had been a conspiracy on the part of Turner Hall to get even' with the
Cox brothers because they had reported Hall's still. The wound in Cox's body
it was argued must have been inflicted at the time he had his hands up as
testified to by Mrs. Josie Cox Wickham. Commonwealth's Attorney Woolwine did
not emphasize heavily one of the salient features of the case that was the
failure of the constituted authorities themselves to serve the warrant on the
Cox brothers and why admitted enemies of the Cox boys should have been permitted
to be deputized to serve what the state claimed was a spite warrant. Trial of
the case also did not include any reference to the mysterious circumstances
through which a triple homicide could be kept from trial for thirteen months.
Yesterday afternoon there was a slight delay at the reopening of court pending
the arrival of Mrs. Mary Stone who it was reported would give sensational
evidence. When she appeared, however the state did not put her on. It was
learned after the trial that the state expected to show by her that just before
Shelton, Turner, and Turner Hall invaded the home of John Hall, where the
shooting took place, one of the accused youths had significantly remarked that
there was going to be a burial in that neighborhood. Either Mrs. Stone's
memory failed her as to the exact words or else she declined to admit to the
state that she had heard such remarks.
The instructions were long and covered such angles as to the elimination of
all evidence bearing on Maynard Cox whose death was not an issue, the reasonable
doubt theory, the legality of the mission of the warrant servers, the
presumption of malice the question of prior grudge the justification of men
serving a warrant killing their prisoners and the definitions of all classes of
homicide.
Neither of the defendants turned a hair when the verdict was returned though
both were breathing rapidly. There was no demonstration, no effusive
congratulations. After the nolle prosequi of the second case had been taken the
two youths crammed their caps on their head and left the court room. The only
verbal remark heard from either one was from Ora Turner with the poker face who
gave vent to his feelings with two words feel better.
While the question of gun caliber which was the ruling feature of the murder
trail was conclusively proven there is doubt if anybody has yet heard the full
and accurate story of what happened at Fayerdale. The shooting happened quickly
everybody was shooting at the same time, it lasted not over a minute and when it
was over nobody had a clear recollection of what happened. A diagram of the
Hall house with notes, showing the position of the dead and wounded showed also
marks of bullet scars about the house. What lead did not remain in the corpses
scattered through nearly every wall in the house.
Mrs. Dan Cox, mother of the victims was a pathetic figure in the courtoom.
She was dressed in black and sat by her husband, a light blue eyed man of ruddy
cheek with a white mustache, a man of means apparently but unmoved by the
verdict. This couple now beyond middle age has seen the devastating effect of
free gunplay in Fayerdale. In addition to Dave and Maynard Cox shot down on the
same day, they lost another son, Ewell Cox, who was killed by a negro. There is
a fourth son, Fred Cox now a fugitive from justice charged with shooting Ora
Turner in the leg near Philpott as result of a renewal of the Fayerdale quarrel.
Clarence Cox, fifth son is living in Kentucky.
Marked feeling ran through the trial and there was a suggestion of fear to
testify on the part of a number of people whose memory failed them conveniently.
The whole structure of the state's case was that a moonshine war of long
standing had resulted in the Cox or others reporting to Z.C. Ramsey, state
prohibition officer, the location of Turner Hall's stills, not once but so often
as to cause the latter to tell a friend that he had put up with it as long as he
was going to.
It was then that the three men conceived the plan of getting even with the Cox
brothers by hiding behind the processes of law securing a warrant for the Cox
boys on the charge of distilling and planning to shoot them under the pretext of
resisting arrest.
The arguments brought out a large crowd of townspeople yesterday to hear the
final pleas and summations also to hear the verdict.
Judge Turner Clement is completing the docket today and will adjourn court
this evening.
The case was admirably conducted from a legal standpoint and it was war to the
knife between counsel. The restricting of each attorney 25 minutes necessitated
a condensation of remarks which saw them at their best, all of them being in
various stages of perspiration at the close of their efforts.
The only humorous episode in an otherwise grim murder trail was afforded by
John Chaney, who like many others of the family party gathered for a pleasant
Sunday as the approaching declaration of war as the three uninvited men came up.
Children fled for cover and John Chaney did too. One bullet took off part of
his ear. The defense version was that this shot knocked him heels over head
that when his feet came up another bullet raked his toes, leaving him stretched
out a painful casualty.
This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/vafiles/
File size: 8.0 Kb