Royal Testifies Morey Warned Against 'Telling'

Royal Testifies Morey Warned Against ‘Telling’

'We’re All In This Together,’ Youth Alleged To Have Said; Defense Testimony Nears End

By Tom Dickinson

David L. Royal testified in circuit court this morning that William R. Morey, III, said, “We’re all in this together,” shortly after they left the scene of the mallet slaying of Nurse Pauline A. Campbell.

“One’s just as much to blame as another,” Morey was alleged to have said as he, Royal, and Jacob Max Pell fled from Ann Arbor after assaulting the 34-year-old St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital nurse in front of her rooming house at 1424 Washington Hgts. early on Sept. 16.

Royal continued his testimony, quoting Morey as saying "We'll all get the same punishment, but if you don't tell you won't get caught."

"I asked them if they cleaned the car up.” Pell replied he had, Royal said.

Warned Not To Tell

"Morey asked me if I’d told anybody yet.” He hadn't, Royal said he told them, whereupon Morey was said to have replied:

“Well don’t tell anybody, whatever you do.”

Royal’s testimony featured the eighth day of the trial in which Morey and Pell, both of Ypsilanti, and Royal, who lives in Milan, are charged with first degree murder in connection with the slaying.

The noon recess began at 12:05 p.m., and Royal was to resume the witness stand at 1:15 under direct examination by his attorney, Albert J. Rapp.

Pell took the witness stand yesterday afternoon and admitted that the mallet, claimed by the prosecution to have been used by Morey in crushing Miss Campbell’s skull, "was mine."

Planned Car Repair

It was in the car, he explained, because he had planned to do some repair work on the automobile the next day, Sunday.

Pell, just as had Morey, who testified yesterday morning, said he was confused as to what took place after the youths left Milan on the evening of Sept. 15 after consuming a case of beer.

"Do you claim you’re not guilty?” Prosecutor Douglas K. Reading asked.

"Yes," replied Pell.

"I had something to drink and I didn't know what was happening," he added.

"Pell continually answered "I don't know," to questions put to him by Reading during a vigorous cross-examination.

Exasperated, Reading finally demanded , "Is there anything you can say to the jury except 'I don't know'?" Pell did not answer.

Let Morey Out Of Car

Pell also admitte letting Morey out of the car shortly before Miss Campbell was attacked, but insisted that “he (Morey) went down the street and out of my sight. I wondered where he went and what had happened to him,” Pell told the court.

'Then, Pell said he "must have driven” the car down the street (Washington Hgts.) and finally spied Morey.

“I stopped the car and asked him what was the matter." Morey did not reply, Pell testified, but he was standing beside the street and was making a “swinging motion."

Pell denied having said to Dr. O. R. Yoder, medical superintendent of Ypsilanti State Hospital, “I’m guilty. Why do I need a lawyer. I in take what’s coming.”

Reading claimed Pell made the statement to Dr. Yoder in the County Jail on Sept. 20.

Not Following Morey

Pell also insisted that he was not "following” Morey down Washington Hgts., but was merely “looking for him.”

Royal filled in many details that the other two youths said they could not remember.

After returning the two Ann Arbor girls to their homes late on Saturday evening. Sept. 15, Royal said, the trio decided to go out to radio station WHRV, but somehow wound up in what he said he later learned was the University Hospital area.

“Bill said, 'Stop the car . . . turn off the lights,’ ’’ Royal testified.

“I saw him (Morey) get out of the car but I paid no attention to where he went.”

He told the court he saw a girl walk up across a curb onto a sidewalk with Morey following. “Then they went out of sight,” he added.

Stopped Car

About five minutes later, Royal continued, he and Pell followed, “looking" for Morey, saw standing beside the curb on Washington Hgts. and stopped the car next to a parked car, Royal said.

Continuing, Royal related, "I had my window rolled down and I heard Bill call for help. I first said no, then Max ordered me to out of the car.

“I didn't see Bill at first ... he was on the other side of the 1951 Ford. I walked around the Ford and saw the girl lying there.

“He told me to grab hold of one of her arms. I was scared and didn't know what to do. We got to the car, and Bill said to put her in. Max hollered no. I dropped her and jumped into the car,” Royal explained.

Then he said he looked for Morey.* “He was picking up some thing,” Royal said. “He had purse and the mallet.”

Threw Purse Away

Then, he went on, the trio fled  the city and drove over two bridges across the Huron River en route. The purse, he said, was thrown out of the window as they drove over the second bridge, later identified as that on Superior Rd.

Royal testified they drove through Ypsilanti to station WHRV on Packard Rd. arriving about 1:15 or 1:30 a.m., and remained there until about 4 a.m. before leaving to go home.

Royal said he arrived in Milan . about 4:30. "I went to bed but didn't go right to sleep, thinking about what happened,” he declared.

Concerning the questioning at state police headquarters at East Lansing the night of Sept. 19-20, Royal asserted, “I didn't have a chance to tell my story."

He was “tired, scared and confused,” he explained, and some of the statements made in the confession were true and others false.

Mother Testifies

Mrs. William R. Morey, II Morey's mother, testified yesterday that her son came home at 1:15 in the morning of Sept. 16.

"He came in and looked rather peculiar to me," she noted. She said she has never asked her son whether he killed the nurse.

Defense testimony was expected to end either this afternoon or tomorrow morning, after which the three defense attorneys and Reading will make their closing statements.

Judge James R. Breakey, jr., then will charge the 14-member jury, and deliberations on the fate of the youths will begin.