Hide Article Text (OCR)
SURPRISE CONFESSIONCafe Manager Acquitted of MurderBILLY LEE McHENRYSuperior Court Judge Allen Miller Tuesday will con-% sider Dorothy Morgan’s surprise “confession” that she fatally shot her son-in-law, when he rules on the guilt or innocence of her husband in the July 2 slaying.Friday, Miller found Billy Lee McHenry, 41, of 2533 Pine Ave., manager of the Orbit Restaurant in LongBeach, not gutUy of killing James Gilbert Frutchey, 40, of 19 N. Middleridge Lane, Rolling Hills Estates.McHenry accompanied Mrs. Morgan's husband, Arthur Virgil, to Fmtchey’s §75,000 home the morning of the slaying. ,Doth men were on trial for murder.Miller Friday interrupted defense attorney Douglas Dalton as he started his final argument and said,“I've made up my mind on your client. I feet there is insufficient evidence to find Mr. McHenry guilty.” .MEANWHILE, THE prose c u t i o n attacked Mrs. Morgan's “confession/’ introduced Thursday by defense attorneys Joseph Ball and Dalton.In the statement which Ball said Mrs. Morgan made Nov. 17, the woman said she shut Frutchey to defend her 65-year-old husband, as the older man was being beaten at Frutchey's home.Mrs. Morgan said in the statement she recalled “pointing the gun at Jim and firing, but-added she could not remember how many shots she fired.In final argument Friday, Deputy Dist. Atly. Robert Burnett attacked the woman’s statement, calling it “absolutely unbelievable.” “Do we have to believe this extra-j u d i c i a I document? he asked Judge Miller.“Is tliis the truth or some sort of 'arranged' statement put forth in the best light she and her attorney coulddevise? Is she not more defensible, by her own statement, than her husband?”“Linda's (Fruthchey’s 11-ycar-old daughter) testimony puts her grandmother inthe bouse at the time of the s h o o t i n g/' Burnett said. “Charleen’s (Fruthchey's wife) testimony puts Mrs. Morgan in the hallway of the house at the time of theshooting.”* * * *“ARE WE TO GIVE less credence to the testimony of these people who took an oath and underwent cross-examination than to Mrs. Morgan who refused an oath and submitted a statement that is protected by the attorney-client relationship?“In the darkness of the yard that morning, It was physically impossible for Mrs. Morgan to have fired the four shots that hit Jim Frutchey as she says she fired them/' Burnett said.Earlier, Deputy WilliamR. Farrington, of the sheriff's homicide detail, challenged Mrs*. Morgan’s statement.He testified the woman told him twice she did not leave the house during the backyard shooting of Frutchey, former Los Angeles lumberyard owner.Under cross-examination by Ball, Farrington admitted there was no written re-poTl made in Mrs. Morgan's allegation that she was inside the house when the fatal shots were fired.Ball, in his final argument, said the prosecution must prove its case beyond ci reasonable doubt, “and this they have not done.”-t * * *“?r?R. BURNETT has not told you what happened that night in the Frutchey bnckvard Iwausc ho obviously doesn’t know/’ Ball told Miller.“Mr. Morgan went to that house that night net to kill Frutchey, but to helphis wife.Mr. Burnett has cast many aspersions on Mrs. Morgan’s statement but I would like to ask Mr. Burnett two questions:Whose gun shot Mr. Frutchey? Certainly not Mr. Morgan’s. Second, do you think Mr. McHemy shot Frutchey? And if he didn’t, whu did?' ‘The most important thing in this case.” Ball said, is that Mr. Morgan’s gun, which is in evidence, had only been fired once.ailt; * * *“THE POLICE testified it couldn't be fired because itwas damaged. And the last person who had that gun was Mr. Frutchey.”Police said that when the slaying took place, Morgan and Frutchey were fighting in the backyard after an argument in which Morgan claimed Frutchey had mistreated his daughter, Charlene Jean, 37, Frutchey’s wife.Mrs. Morgan has not been charged with the crimeARTHUR V. MORGANand is not in custody.During the Friday morning court sessinn, testimony was heard from three other witnesses: Jack Light of Newport Beach, who said he had known the victim for 25 years;.Tim W. Raker, who spent last New Year’s Eve with Frutchey, and Dale Yates, a business associate and fraternity brother of the dead man.Light testified Morgan asked his help in persuading hi5 son-in-law to doDOROTHY MORGANsomething about his daughter’s drinking problem.“I don’t know what I am liable to do. I think I might have to kill Jim, Light claimed Morgan told him.• Raker told the court that during a New Year’s Eve gathering at his hnxne last year. Frutchey told him he lived in constant fear of Morgan.Yates testified Frutchey told him: “I am afraid that he (Morgan) would shoot me in the back.”
Newspaper Details
Independent Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Sat, Dec 30, 1967
Page 19
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 01 Jul 2019
Other Publications Near Long Beach, California
Independent Long Beach
Independent Press Telegram
Press Telegram
Independent
Long Beach Press Telegram
