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CHARLESTON, W. Va. (UPI) Jury deliberations started today in the five-day-old trial of a Baptist minister and a former coal miner accused in the textbook protest related dynamiting of a Kanawha County school last October. Court observers had expected testimony to spill over into the weekend, but the proceedings surprisingly ended when both defendants—the Rev. Marvin Horan and Larry E. Stevens— refused to take the witness stand Thursday. U. S. District Judge K. K. Hall took nearly an hour in his instructions to the jury. He cautioned them not to consider the defendants’ decision not to testify. ‘The law doesn’t compel a defendant to take the stand,”’ Hall said. ‘‘No presumption or inference can be raised by failure of a defendant to testify.” Defense attorneys took less than an hour to rest their case, and no witnesses were called on Stevens’ behalf. Witnesses included Alice Horan, the minister's wife, who said she and her husband were at home the night protest activities allegedly were dis cussed at Horan’s anti-textbook headquarters on Campbell's Creek. Prosecution testimony had placed the Horans at the building on Oct. 21, the night before a dynamite bomb was set off inside the Midway Elementary School. Closing arguments by Horan’s attorney centered on the ‘ution testimony of Delbert Rose, who earlier pleaded guilty to a role in the school bombing. “Delbert Rose has admitted his part in the conspiracy,” attorney Michael Allen told the jurors. ‘He hasn't been sentenced. He realizes how important it is now to cooperate with the government.” Government witnesses were defended by U. S. Attorney John Field. “Think of the courage it has taken,’ Field said. ‘Our witnesses have stared into the eyes of the people they live with and have testified to the truth, the way it actually happened.” As he spoke, the courtroom was jam-packed. Many of the spectators were supporters of Horan’s crusade to rid county school of new textbooks he labelled immoral and unpatriotic. Assistant U. S. Attorney Wayne Rich referred to Stevens as Horan’s “right hand man, the explosives man,”’ and said the two had “a partnership to destroy our school buildings in this county.”’ Rich said Horan ‘used young boys to insulate himself.”’ ‘“‘He’s the one who stirred them up.’ the attorney said.
Newspaper Details
Morgantown Dominion Post
Morgantown, West Virginia, US
Fri, Apr 18, 1975
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Laura P.
USA 05 Jun 2026
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