Statements Made By Three Youths Read At Trial

Statements Made By Three Youths Read At Trial

Breakey Admits Confessions As Evidence; Mallet Killing Details Described To Jury

By Tom Dickinson

Confessions of three 18-year-old youths admitting their roles in the mallet killing of Nurse Pauline A. Campbell read this morning in a tense and crowded circuit courtroom.

The youths, William R. Morey, III, and Jacob Max Pell, both of Ypsilanti, and David L. Royal of Milan, sat | with bowed heads as Prosecutor Douglas K. Reading read the statements describing the brutal slaying of the 34-year-old St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital nurse early in the morning of Sept. 16.

The trial, in its third day today scheduled to resume at 1:30 this afternoon.

Judge James R. Breakey, Jr., admitted the confessions into evidence over the objections of defense counsel.

Jury Sworn Yesterday

Developments in the trial came quickly after a jury panel finally was selected and sworn at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. It was the same panel that occupied the box as the trial adjourned for lunch yesterday. The additional 100 prospective jurors hastily summoned to court were not needed.

Five prosecution witnesses testified after Reading made his 25-minute opening statement, in which he demanded conviction on first degree murder charges for the three youths.

Reading of the confessions this morning was the highlight of the proceedings thus far. The statements were taken at Michigan State Police headquarters at East Lansing early in the morning of Thursday, Sept. 20-several hours after the youths were arrested.

There they recounted the events which preceded the attack and signed the typewritten confessions prepared by officers and a state police stenographer.

Statement Tells Details

Morey related in his statement that he struck the blows that killed Miss Campbell with a rubber-headed mallet supplied by Pell from the garage where Pell worked. 

He added that he didn't know if she made a sound or how many times he hit her. There was no struggle, he said in the statement which Reading read.

 Asked if he thought it was wrong | to make the attack, Morey stated: "Sort of. I mean I knew it was wrong but nobody seemed to care."

When asked if she was slugged to rob her to buy more gas for the car, he replied, "I guess that’s what we intended.”

Morey noted in the confession that he first heard that Miss Campbell was dead later in the day of the killing, when he was at the home of a girl friend for dinner and heard guests discussing the killing.

Shows Emotion

For the first time, Morey showed visible emotion as his and the other confessions were read aloud in the packed courtroom. He winced several times and was wringing his fingers nervously.

Mothers of the trio, sitting in the front row, wept quietly. Mr. Morey and Mr. Pell, also present, comforted their wives

During the questioning at East Lansing, Royal was asked if he knew what he and his companions had done was wrong.

"Not at first," he said in the confession. "I know now we was all out of our heads a little bit."

Asked if he had his wits about him at the time of the killing, Royal answered, according to teh statement, "I guess so." He said they were not intoxicated but admitted they drank beer earlier in the evening.

Similar To Others

Pell's statement was similar to the others. In it, he said it was Morey's idea to drive around the University Hospital area.

Pell described the death weapon as being about 12 inches long with a four-inch head, 2 1/2 inches in diameter at the widest point.

"He (Morey) had it stuck in the back of his belt" as he stalked his victim down Washington Hgts., Pell declared in his statement.

"It was taken for granted what he would be using it for," he added. 

In his opening address yesterday, Reading told the jury that the three youths "collectively" killed Miss Campbell as she was about to enter her rooming house at 1424 Washington Hgts. on the night of Sept. 15-16.

Says All Responsible

Although Morey was the one who actually wielded the mallet, he added, all persons who aid, assist or abet in the commission of a crime "are equally responsible."

He asserted that stalking the victim and driving slowly down the street with the car lights out was lying in wait within the fullest meaning of the law."

He based his charges on first degree murder on the claims that the killing was perpetrated by means of lying in wait with robbery intended as a motive.

Following the opening statement, Reading called his first witness, Miss Barbara Ferguson, who lives in the same rooming house, at 1424 Washington Hgts., where Miss Campbell lived.

Describes Clothing

Miss Ferguson testified that she s saw Miss Campbell leave for work the afternoon of Sept. 15 and that she was wearing a white nurse's uniform, white shoes and a rain coat and was carrying a paper bag.

Reading then produced those articles of bloodstained clothing, which Miss Ferguson identified as "resembling" the garments and effects she had seen on Sept. 15.

Miss Ferguson said she had retired about 11:45 that night.

“I was aroused by sounds of running footsteps approximately five minutes after 12 o’clock. After the footsteps I heard a sound pretty close to a grunt.

"Then I heard voices, more than one man’s voice, a car door slam and a car drive away,” she testified.

Christian Helmus of 1440 Washington Hgts., a freshman Medical School student, told the court how he and a friend had discovered Campbell’s body lying in a pool of blood and summoned police.

Performed Autopsy

Dr. Jack G. Weinbaum, St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital pathologist, testified that he performed an autopsy on the body on Sept. 16.

His examination disclosed, he said, that she suffered two skull fractures which had shattered the bones in her head. Her brain was I “torn and crushed and was oozing out" through the skull covering, he told the court.

Detective Duane W. Bauer of the Ann Arbor Police Department also testified yesterday and again this morning. He was one of the officers who arrested the youths on Sept. 19 and accompanied them to East Lansing.

The 14-member jury finally chosen is made up of seven men and seven women. All but four indicated that they were parents.

Jurors Listed

Following is a list of the panel members:

Mrs. Josephine Lutz of 230 Crest Ave., a housewife; Mrs. Geraldine Godfrey of Whitmore Lake; Mrs. Pearl Herman of Gregory, a housewife; Mrs. Carrie Beeman of Chelsea, a housewife; and Fred Hafley of Chelsea, unemployed.

Mrs. Nellie Keusch of Chelsea, a housewife; Herman Rosentreter o; Dexter, a farmer; Mrs. Esthei Bowling of 1900 W. Ellsworth Rd. a housewife; and William Kramer of Manchester, a retired postal carrier;

Albert Raus of Saline, a retired farmer; Galbraith P. Gorman of Dexter, a salesman; Emory Keppler of 425 N. Main St., retired; Mrs. Laura Staeb of Superior township, a housewife; and H. J. Morrow of 345 S. Division St., retired from the restaurant business.