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Prisoner Hesitates Once

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Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
August
Year
1971
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Prisoner Hesitates Once

By William B. Treml
(News Police Reporter)

Lantern-jawed, diminutive Glenn Granger Charles does not yet show “prison lines” in his face.

He is a relatively small man, five feet, nine-inches tall. He weighs 160 pounds. His squarish face is highlighted by a pair of darting brown eyes which sweep over people and objects, perceiving, inquiring. His dirty-blond hair is almost brown, neatly trimmed and combed carefully over on the right side.

Since his escape from a trusty farm at Southern Michigan Prison at Jackson 10 days ago he has grown a mustache and a goatee. They give him a quizzical, almost scholarly look.

Yesterday morning he stood before Ann Arbor District Court Judge S. J. Elden and was arraigned on a murder charge in connection with the death last weekend of Theodore R. Ziefle. Charles stood quietly and listened attentively while the judge read the criminal complaint and warrant to him. The defendant answered with a strong “Yes, sir” and “No, sir” to questions about his indigency and his need for a court-appointed attorney.

When he leaned over a defense counsel table to sign an indigency claim, the black stenciled “County Jail” lettering on the back of the green blouse he was wearing gleamed in the late morning sunlight.

There was a brief laugh among court attendants when it was found the recording equipment in Judge Elden’s court room was not working. But Charles stood motionless and unsmiling in front of a microphone facing the judge. When the arraignment was moved across the hall to the empty courtroom of Judge Pieter G. V. Thomassen, Charles followed Detective George Gallas and was followed by Detective Bernard Price to the new setting without a word.

The Virginia native, who has spent jail and prison time in three states during his 23 years, hesitated only once in his answers to Judge Elden. That brief pause came when the judge asked him for his address. There was a moment of silence. Then Charles lifted his head and said: "Well, 4000 Cooper St., Jackson, Michigan.” That is the address of Southern Michigan Prison.

The accused killer told the judge he is married and has one child, that he has no savings, stocks or property which could be used to pay attorney fees, that he is in need of a court-appointed lawyer.

He nodded almost imperceptibly when Robert J. Grace, a former U.S. District Attorney now practicing in Ann Arbor, told the court he had conferred with the defendant and the defense was prepared to proceed.

He stared, poker-faced at the bench, when Judge Elden told him his District Court examination on the murder charge would be held Aug. 11 and that he would remain in the County Jail until then.

Then, at a motion from Detective Price, he followed Officer Gallas out a side door to an elevator.

Charles, Left, Escorted By Detectives Gallas, Rear, And Price