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FIRST SUIT FOR HE ON A PISTOL TOTING BONDIbrfendant Secures Verdict in a V ir* tea I Retrial of the Hatfield Murder Case.One of the hardest fought legal battles that has taken place in the Fayette courts lor a long time was that cf the State for the use of T. G. Thornhill, vs. J. D. Hatfield administrator, and which was concluded Tues- j day afternoon, by a jury verdict in fa-vor of the defendant.The purpose of the suit was to recover off the administrator of Elias Hatfield, deceased as sure^’ on the pistol bond of Willis Hatfield, the sum J of three thousand and five hundred dollars.Willis Hatfield had been convicted in the circuit court of Wyoming county for the murder of * Dr. Thornhill, j and served a portion of the sentence! in the penitentiary^ when he was par-! doned by Governor Glasscock, toward i the end of his term as governor.It is a stipulation of the Johnson. pistol law that recovery on the bond ' may be had if the pistol license shall accidentally or illegally do harm with j the pistol that he is carrying.It was the contention of the plaintiff in the case that Hatfield had used the pistol illegally, and the record in the trial of the murder case, or parts ©f it were used to show the character of the offense, and for the purpose of i establishing the liability on the bond.The result of the trial here is con- j sidered by some to be equivalent to I a verdict of acquittal of the accused j murderer of Dr. Thornhill. This for j the reason that the court instructed! the jury that if they believed that! Willis Hatfield did not use the pistol j illegally, they shoilld find for the defendant, and whereas if he had used I it illegally the jury- would have been ! compelled to find for the plaintiff.The plaintiff was represented in the ! trial of the case by attornies E. L.; Nuckolls, of the Fayette bar. and George Williams, of the Raleigh bar.! The defendant was represented by j Messrs. Osenton Horan.It is undertsood that this is the j first case of this character to be tried j in West Virginia, and lawyers assert | that there were no precedents upon j which to rely in any of the courts I ©f the United States.It is probable that the case will be appealed, though m statement j warranting that assertion had come i from the interested parties as yet. The record of the case has not been examined as yet for error. A motion j has been made to set aside the verdict of the jury and that motion will be I heard by the court within a few days. —Fayette Tribune.
Newspaper Details
Beckley Raleigh Register
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Thu, Sep 04, 1913
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
David W.
NA, NA 24 Aug 2023
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