Love Hearing Opens Before Judge O'Brien

LOVE HEARING OPENS BEFORE JUDGE O’BRIEN

Five Witnesses Called Against Accused Slayer Of Mrs. Zella McConnell

Examination of Ivan Love, 34-year-old accused killer of Mrs. Zella McConnell April 1, began before Municipal Judge Francis O’Brien this morning.

It was scheduled to resume this afternoon following a noon recess.

Mrs. McConnell was found dead in her home at 1675 Lexington Ave., a mile north of Ann Arbor, by her three daughters. Love, a roomer in the home since shortly after Christmas, surrendered at the Redford state police post about two hours afterward.

Has Denied Charge

Love has denied the slaying, asserting that Mrs. McConnell was shot in the course of a “struggle.”

Chief assistant prosecutor Edmond DeVine called five witnesses in the session of the examination this morning.

They were two of Mrs. McConnell’s daughters—Velma Hall, 17, and Jennie Hall, 14; Coroner Edwin C. Ganzhorn; Henry Sell, a neighbor of the McConnell’s; and Dr. Dorin L. Hinerman, pathologist at the University Hospital who performed an autopsy on the victim’s body.

Velma Hall, shown a .22 caliber rifle found in Love’s truck, said she had never seen the weapon before and that “we had never had a weapon in our house.”

Jennie Hall testified she overheard an argument between Love and her mother at 5:30 on the afternoon of the killing in which, she stated, Love said, “If I can’t have you, no one can.”

Both she and Velma told of finding their mother’s body on the dining-room floor when they returned from seeing a movie in Ann Arbor about 8:45 that night.

Reports On Autopsy

Dr. Hinerman said his autopsy revealed that any one of four of the 10 bullets which entered Mrs. McConnell’s body could have been the cause of death. He explained that two bullets went through the heart and two others pierced the aorta, the largest artery of the body.

He said he recovered six bullets from the body and one from the wrapping sheet in which the victim was brought to the autopsy.

Sell, who lives at 1676 Lexington Ave., said he saw Love’s truck driving up and down the street before the McConnell home on an average of two or three times an hour between 4 and 8 o’clock April 1.

Louis J. Columbo, jr., Detroit attorney representing Love, cross-examined each of the state’s witnesses briefly. Love was not called to the witness stand.