Guilty As Charged

The Verdict of the Jury in the Anderson Case

                               --------

SYMPATHY FOR FATHER

                               ---------

Who Has Long Brooded Over the Affray

                                --------

And In His Trouble Joined the Son of His Old Master in Missouri, But Was Yesterday Confident of Acquittal.

                                 -------

"Guilty as charged with recommendation to the mercy of the court," was the verdict rendered by the circuit court jury Thursday in the case of the People vs. Fred Anderson, charged with assaulting Wm. E. McCurdy, with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.
The maximum penalty of this offense is 10 years, but no one dreams that it will be imposed in this case.
The verdict was rendered at 10:20 o'clock, the jury having been out since 6 o'clock.
When the jury went out the first ballot is said to have stood: conviction 6, acquittal 5, blank 1.
As time went on and there seemed on the outside that the prospects for an agreement were lessening, the attorneys got together and agreed to have Judge Kinne call the jury in and charge them that if they saw fit they could under the indictment find the prisoner guilty of simple assault and battery. The hint was evidently not taken for it was after this that the verdict of "guilty as charged" was rendered.

The attorneys in the case made good speeches. Capt Allen talking to the jury got an answer from one of them that he was not expecting.
A statement had been made about colored men carrying razors. This the doughty captain was indignantly denying and he appealed to the jury with the query: "Did you ever know a colored man who carried a razor?"
Turning to one of the jurymen in particular he repeated the question, evidently not expecting any answer but before he could get any farther the juryman spoke up saying: "Yes, I have."

Considerable sympathy is expressed for Anderson's father. He has taken considerable pride in his boy, who was attending the Ypsilanti high school, at the time of the affray and had always been a good boy.
The father, who is an old man, mortgaged his property to defend him, and has been so broken down by the affair that he was unable to continue at work.
He suddenly disappeared, the trouble having temporarily unhinged his mind, and was finally discovered in a back county in .Missouri, where he was with a son of his old master. He was persuaded to return and attended the trial.
So confident was he of his son's acquittal that after the jury went out he was telling his son that he wanted him to go back to the high school as soon as he was released.

When the verdict was rendered, Anderson braced himself with a visible effort, turning pale.

The judge has not vet imposed the sentence.