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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3927790" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Two-hundred-thirty-eight, “Wyatt Earp’s Trial Begins” , Monday, June 19th, 9:30 A.M. The bailiff Kevin Tomlinson reads the charges stating, “Wyatt Earp is charged with ten courts of pre-meditated murder. He is said to have committed these in and around Promise City over a sixteen-day period . He is charged with the deaths of Claude Buckley on May 31st, Gordy Bryson and Dennis Garvin on June 1st, Colin Hunter, Jasper Ordway and Nicholas Thayer on June 7th, and finally Porter Norris, Vaughn Palmer, Charlie Villers and Stephen Wicks on June 15th.” Judge Isby looks towards Earp and says, “How does the defendant plead?” Attorney Upton stands and says, “Not Guilty Sir.” The Judge calls upon both attorney’s for their opening remarks. The young priestess Minerva sits unobtrusively in the back of the room. She sits perfectly still, her hands folded in her lap as her eyes scan the room in an attempt to read the reactions evoked by the sheriffs opening remarks. Cochise County Sheriff John Behan goes first, stating “Seated before you is a man who many of you may think is still your respected former Town Marshal, a role he occupied many months ago, but you are mistaken. That man died three months ago, the person before you is a corrupted shell of his former self, a person trapped in madness. The death of Wyatt Earp’s brother Morgan Earp in March partially unhinged the man, leading to a rampage with several like-minded vigilantes. One of them was his youngest brother, and the death of brother Warren in late May pushed this man over the edge. In his crazed and homicidal state Earp needed to fulfill his obsession for revenge, planning out three separate killing sprees a week apart and he was caught at the final one. His victims being people either superficially connected to his perceived enemies or total innocents who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Before this trial is over you will see that in all ten cases Earp planned and executed these murders. This man once stood for the law. When he turned in the badge that you had entrusted him with he abandoned all that he once stood for. You twelve people have been given a great responsibility. You need to put aside any prior feelings or opinions that you have had to this man and listen to the evidence, the facts, which I will present to you. Thank you.” After Behan sits down Upton stand and approaches the jury for his opening remarks. “You have heard the charges, ten counts of pre-mediated murder. And during the next few hours you will hear Sheriff Behan detail why he feels that those charges are valid. But what you will not hear from him are actual facts, instead you will hear a lot of circumstantial evidence, innuendo and speculation from a man who for years has held a personal grudge against my client. We know that he will not be telling the truth, because the truit is that Mr. Earp was in no way responsible or even present at the deaths of Claude Buckley, Colin Hunter, Nicholas Thayer and Stephen Wicks. He while he was present at Vaughn Palmer death, but that wizard died by his own hands though an accident resulting from his own misuse of wizard magics. Mr. Earp admits to being responsible for Jasper Ordway’s death but that was in no way pre-mediated murder but instead an act of self-defense. Mr. Earp also admits to causing the other four deaths that he is accused of but the evidence will show that in each and every one of those cases they were justifiable homicides where another responsible citizen under the same circumstances would have done the same thing. I ask that you keep an open mind when you listen to what John Behan has to say this morning. And after Behan is finished telling you his creative fiction you will then hear the actual facts, first from myself and then from Mr. Earp himself. Thank you.” For the next three hours at the trail John Behan calls a number of witnesses to the stand, including several past associates from Tombstone who testify to Earp’s temper as well as what they heard about Earp’s rampage during the two months following Warren’s death. Deputy Sheriff Buckskin Frank Leslie provides damning testimony from his own investigations of each of the ten killings. Under cross-examination Upton gets Leslie to speak of his own relationship with his boss, Sheriff Behan. Upton then draws the Jury’s attention to the fact that Leslie’s future employment might be contingent upon the testimony given this morning which could lead to biased testimony, whether intentional or unconscious. Attorney Hamilton Fisk takes the stand and describes how following the discovery of Buckley’s body near his home Marshal Berg and Deputy Marshal Martin visited him for questioning. Fisk states that they disregarded any suggestion that Earp was involved and appeared to be seeking somebody else to blame the murders on. He also states how Porter Norris and Charlie Villars were good men who feared for their lives of Earp’s misguided revenge concluding “And with good reason too, given that he stalked and hunted them, waiting in the same rocks where he murdered Buckley for them to exit the Liberty Party Headquarters and shooting them down in cold blood when they did so.” Behan’s final witness is rancher Ken Wagner, who had worked for both the Thayer Ranch and Buckley’s Crazy-8 Ranch. He testifies to having found the bodies of Ordway, Hunter and Thayer and then returning with the lawmen. He says that at that time when the lawmen spoke among themselves they believed Earp responsible. They then conspired to hide that evidence to protect Earp, attempting to then pin the deaths on Wagner instead, but the charges would not hold up and Wagner was released. Wagner then testifies that Judge Isby himself tried to get him to leave town, forcing the sale of Wagner’s property, in order to prevent him from testifying. John Behan calls for a mistrial. And demands that a new trial be ordered to take place at the county seat of Tombstone. Judge Isby denies the motion stating, “Mr. Wagner is incorrect in his assumptions. He did become a one-third owner of the Crazy-8 Ranch following Mr. Thayer’s death but the sale of that ranch was unrelated to this trial. I ordered that ranch sold because his other two co-owners, who collectively owned a majority of that ranch, were members of Ashely King’s Hooded Riders. Assets of those men were sold to make restitution to the victims of that attack so that was what requiring the sale of that ranch. It had nothing to do with Mr. Wagner and he received one-third of the proceeds from the sale of that ranch. He is free to do whatever he wishes with that money, including purchasing new property here in Promise City, so he was never forced to leave for any reason.” Behan makes a preliminary closing argument to finish, linking together the testimony given and point out in every instance how and why he feels that Earp was responsible. Judge Isby looks at the clock and says, “It is now 12:45 P.M. I will call for a forty-five minute recess. I ask that everybody remain seated until Mr. Tomlinson and I escort the jury out of the room. We will dine in silence at the Territorial Office Building and then return here. The trial will resume promptly at 1:30 PM with Attorney Upton’s first witness.” Over at the school lunchtime eventually came and the children ran outdoors to enjoy their lunches in the sunshine and play hard as soon as they'd eaten. As usual they kept the door open so they could keep an eye on them. Since Mrs. Milford had been chosen for the jury Kate went into the kitchen and brought out something for the teachers to eat. She told Mollie and Meghan about the jury selection and the quick trials for the cheaters from the tournament. Then she went on to Warren Watson's trial. Her own testimony, how Fisk had tried to make Emery Shaw look bad on the stand, and then Edwin Booth's cross-examination of Watson. "That man's hatred is something terrible," she said. "As much as I dislike him I feel sorry for him, that he became so corrupted by it. But the best part is that Edwin Booth made it publicly known who Conrad is, and how those rumors about him got started. It may not make much difference here, but I could see how happy it made him." The teachers' improvised lunch is then interrupted by the arrival of Dorita Figures and her grandfather Manuel. Dorita has brought food for the teachers, having also anticipated Mrs. Milford's absence. Manuel has with him the painting of Niles Hoover. Kate exclaims, "Oh Dorita, thank you. This is much better than what I had in the kitchen." Kate took the opportunity to hug her second mother before she started setting out the lunch. Dorita returns the hug and says, "Eat up, you teachers all too skinny" Kate states, "Dorita! I can't even pull my corset tight anymore. Look at this, I'm absolutely chubby," she laughed and touched her face where she had noticed definite roundness just the other day. "It's alright, the ladies know why." Kate turns to Gonzales and says, “Grandpere, thank you for bringing this," she said, repeating the embrace and adding a kiss on the cheek. "It was so thoughtful." He replies, "Less thoughtful than you might think, I needed to remove it from the Lucky Lady Dance Hall and Saloon. It appears that the Mr. Hoover here was Mrs. Enion's accomplice in her scheme to win the tournament through cheating." Kate sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that. I heard Mrs. Enion talking to Mr. Maverick Friday night and she said she'd straightened herself out. I hoped it was true, she seemed like a nice woman. But I still warned Jake about it." Gonzales replies softly so that the others don't hear, "Warning him probably wouldn't have helped, who would have suspected her husband to have used magical paint to create it! I was so focused on looking at the players and spectators for magical use I hadn't continually checked the walls of the room. Of course, special words were needed to activate the painting's powers, so when it wasn't active it just appeared to be a normal painting and she appeared to have only used it a few select times.." Kate says, "It was discovered, Grandpere. There's no reason to worry over it now. Is it safe to have the painting in the schoolroom?" He replies, "I imagine so. I don't want to strip the magic from it right away in case they catch her and her husband, they might need it as evidence. I wouldn't worry too much about her spying on your classroom, no profit in that. And for that matter, you might want to be let in on the painting's secret yourself. Students often joke about the teacher having eyes in the back of her head by seeing things even when the back is turned to the class, in this case you could make that a reality." "I'm not sure I really want to know," she laughed quietly. "But I might as well learn. Our students are fairly well-behaved but there's more of them than us, we can use every advantage we can get. Did Conrad come in and talk to Dorita this morning about his brother's last night in town?" Gonzales replies, "Oh yes, she is planning for quite the celebration. She was planning a party anyway as a final campaign rally for our good Mr. Fuente but his gives double cause for celebration." Kate says, "Good! Grandpere, I'm so happy for Conrad. Mr. Booth, the elder that is, was stunning this morning when he was allowed to question Warren Watson. He got him to admit his hatred for anyone named Booth, and to admit he thought Conrad lied to him about his relationship with them. Which Edwin then completely disproved. It may not clear up all the rumors of cheating around him, they've been established for so long, but it will help. And at least he knows his brother loves him and believes in him." Gonzales says, "Yes indeed. I imagine that Chumbley will have written that up for today's paper." Looking out the window he says "And speaking of which, I think I see the paperboy right now." Kate looks and indeed Josiah Young, the typesetter for the Promise City Mirror, is making the rounds with the day’s newspaper heading up Fremont Street. Kate says, "I didn't think we'd get a paper until this evening, when he could get everything at once. I'll be right back." Kate went outside and offered Josiah Young three nickels to get several copies of the paper. "I see your wife is up and about again. I'd wanted to stop by and offer my congratulations, but I thought she'd still be recovering." Josiah replies, "Oh yes, she was chomping at the bit to get back to work. She wouldn't have minded staying home with the baby if she had been born a week later, but with all this news going on Angela was getting quite restless. Morgana was insistent that she stay home though, which is good because my wife wouldn't have listened to myself or Chumbley. Morgana said she could cover the Earp trail, in part because our publisher considers Angela to be the best reporter and in part because Chumbley has a pro-Earp bias that Morgana would prefer to keep out of the story. Angela about had a fit when it looked like Mary would be on the Jury and she would have had to watch the children instead. Thankfully Mary was excused." He sells her the papers while he is talking. "Yes, Mr. Chumbley seemed very friendly with the Earps," Kate said soberly. "Lucky for your wife that clears the way for her to get back to her job. I've missed seeing her. I hope you won't mind if I do stop by in the next few days for a peek at that baby." Josiah answers, "Please do, after all she was named after your brother and your...friend." He pockets the money and throws the newspaper satchel over his shoulders saying, "Well, I must be off. We'll be putting out another paper late tonight so things will be rather busy for me until then." She replies, "I imagine so. Good day to you, Mr. Young." Kate hurried back to the school and gave one paper to Mollie and Meghan and one to Mr. Gonzales. "Let us see what it says," Kate said, spreading the paper out on the desk. The top story reads “Earp to Waive Fifth Amendment Rights at Trial”. The story apparently went to print mid-morning and includes the full opening remarks from both attorney’s including Elihu Upton’s claim that Earp will testify in his own defense. Kate says, "I wonder how late today the trial will go. Although I suppose I ought to stay away from that, no good would come of me being there," she said and looked at Mr. Gonzales. "It's an interesting strategy. I wonder how either of them plans to prove anything. Earp seemed to trying to keep his movements secret. Who knows what really happened?" Kate sees that the next front page story reads “Earp Jury Selected” and describes the lengthy jury selection process and the reasons why several jurors were excused. Kate is troubled to see it put into print Behan’s speculation of her and Sonoma helping out Earp. Another thing that jumps out at Kate is are the two sentences following Al Brower’s explanation of his love who fled town in fear of Wyatt Earp. These sentences read: “There had been considerable speculation about the reason for Miss. Ruby West’s abrupt departure from Promise City three weeks ago but this explanation was the first confirmation as to why she left. Brower’s secret romance with West comes as no great surprise given how often he frequented the Lucky Lady Dance Hall and Saloon instead of his own Comique.” She groaned. "You know, I've always respected Mr. Chumbley, but I'm losing it bit by bit. Mr. Brower never said it was Ruby. At least the accusation against the ranch is possibly newsworthy. I'm going to have to go over to the newspaper office and get that retracted. Ruby didn't run away, and she's sent letters back since. Someone hiding does not send letters home." Gonzales laughs and says, "Relax Katherine, Chumbley has always been infatuated with Ruby and surely misses her so naturally he would have assumed that was who Al was mentioning. I doubt that little guy even noticed that Madge isn't here either. As for the letters, unless one was addressed to Chumbley he probably isn't aware of that either." Kate says, "I know he has, and he has no evidence that it isn't her. But he also has no evidence it is and he should be responsible enough to find some before he prints it. And it makes it look as if she had two boyfriends at once. I know she doesn't care much what anyone else thinks, but she doesn't like lies being told about her." She shook her head and smiled. "At least since she's been gone for a while few people are likely to care. I'll still go over and straighten him out." Gonzales says, "Indeed, and when you do he will probably check with Al Brower and then print a retraction. Kate now checks the remaining front page story, along the bottom below the fold. It reads “Final Four in Lucky Lady Tournament – Saloons become Prizes!”. It describes that the four remaining gamblers are Evan Adair, ‘Silver’ Jake Cook, Brady Hawkes and Brett Maverick. The tournament will resume one hour after the Earp trial adjourns for the day as two Lucky Lady employees, Darla Peacock and Hannah Milford, are serving on the Earp Jury. The story then describes that Adair of the Palace and Cook of the Lucky Lady have each bet the deeds to their respective saloons to the other and that whoever remains in the tournament the longest becomes the owner of both. The story also mentions that Lucky Lady co-owner Job Kane has sold his ownership of the Lucky Lady to Evan Adair and that Kane’s deed is now part of the bet. Kane’s sale to Adair was conducted in private on Saturday, June 10th, but did not become finalized until Adair transferred the money to him a week later. It states that Kane could not be reached for comment as he is currently recovering under Doctor James Eaton’s care from injuries sustained in a pre-dawn altercation at the poker tournament which left one spectator dead. "Job would never sell his share to Adair," Kate said, baffled. "There must be more to this than is here, his injuries must be connected somehow. Adair must have faked this..." She looked at her teacher. "Poor Job. I wonder if Doctor Eaton will let me see him after school, although now he has his Bernice here to care for him. If Adair gets away with this I'll never be able to go to the Lady again. I will not set foot in a place he owns even a part of." Gonzales says, "This is all news to me, I left after I helped to catch Mrs. Enion. Katherine, this is important. Why don't you go see about it now, given Eaton's present attitude towards you I am certain he will let you in. I can help out here until you get back, I have many interesting pieces of history that I can impart to your students." "Thank you, Grandpere," she said. "I'd far rather go now, but I didn't want to abandon my responsibility here. I suppose they didn't manage to get Mr. Watson's trial in before they had to go to print. I'll be back as soon as I can." Kate kissed his cheek again and added, "I'll see you at the El Parador tonight." She hurried out the door and past the yard where the children were still shouting and playing. It only took a few minutes to get to Doctor Eaton's office and knock on the door.</blockquote>

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