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tlicr can you cry.MARKETS ON PAGES B-2 B-JSURPRISE CONFESSIONCafe Manager AcquittedBILLY LEE McHENRYSuperior Court Judge Allen Miller Tuesday will consider 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 25315 Pine Ave., manager of the Orbit Restaurant in Long Bead), not guilty of killing James Gilbert Frutehey, 40, of 19 N. Middleridge Lane, Rolling Hills Estates.McHenry accompanied Mrs. Morgan’s husband, Arthur Virgil, to Frutehey’s §75,000 home the morningof the slaying. . .Both men were on trialfor 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 feel 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 womansaid she shut Frutehey to defend her 65-ycar-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 this the truth or some sort of ‘arranged’ statement put forth in the best light she and her aUorney 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 in the house 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 the shooting.”“ARE WE TO GIVE less credence to the testimony of these people who lookan oath and underwent cross-examination than to Mrs. Morgan who refused an oath and submitted a statement that is protected by the attomey-client relationship?”“In the darkness of the yard that morning. It was physically impossible for Mrs. Morgan to have fired the four shots that ilit Jim Frutehey as she says she fired then,11 Burnett said.Earlier, Deputy WilliamR. FarringH iff's homicilonged Mrs.mcnt.He testif told him tv leave the h b a cky a rFrutehey,geles !u mb* Under c by Ball, F: led there w poTt made : allegation inside the fatal shots Ball, in raent, said must prove ci reasonal this they lu“MR. 151 told you that night bnckvard viously dotold Miller“Mr. Nthat house hill Fmtcl his wife.
Newspaper Details
Independent Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Sat, Dec 30, 1967
Page 19
Full Page
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USA 01 Jul 2019
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