Collins Spends His Birthday in Court

Collins Spends His Birthday In Court

By William B. Treml

(News Police Reporter)

Plans foranimpromptu
birthday celebration for
accused slayer John Norman
Collins were cancelled abruptly
this morning by Sheriff Douglas
J. Harvey.

The sheriff refused a request
by Mrs. Loretta Collins, the
defendant's mother, to bring a
birthday cake to Collins in the
•nunty jail.

"I have 80 prisoners in this
jail," Harvey said. "All have
birthdays. I cannot permit 80
birthday parties in this institu-
tion."

As a compromise, the sheriff
permitted Mrs. Collins to pre-
sent her son with a shirt and tie
after having her wrap the gifts
in the presence of detectives
Roy Couch and Arthur Preston.
The two officers are on perma-
nent assignment as guards for
Collins, escorting him to and
from the county building for the
jury drawing each day.

Mrs. Collins was permitted to
hand the wrapped present to
her son through a door to a
lock-up just outside the court-
room of Judge John W. Conlin.

Collins, arrested last July 31
for the murder of Karen Sue
Beineman, has been in the
county jail since that date. He
was 23 today.

Meanwhile, Collins' trial con-
tinued this morning with Cir-
cuit Court Judge John W. Con-
lin excusing "for cause" 16
members of the 34-person jury
panel.

The new panel was called in
today after another panel had
been exhausted in jury drawing
yesterday.

Judge Conlin said he excused
the 16 persons for a variety of
reasons including aquaintance-
ship with principles in the case,
problems of ill health in the
family, inability to find baby-
sitters during a long trial and
vacation plans.

The judge instructed the
panel of 34 behind locked doors
in his courtroom and then
issued excuses after question-
in g the prospective jurors
individually.

The remaining 18 persons
from the fresh panel will now
be examined by Prosecutor
William F. Delhey and defense
attorneys Joseph W. Louisell
and Neil H. Fink.

Whether the Collins trial
cmains in Washtenaw County
or is moved to an Upper Penin-
sula city will be known by July
1.

Judge Conlin, on whom that
decision rests, virtually com-
mitted himself to that deadline
yesterday when he said he
planned to call in two new
panels for the jury-drawing ses-
sions.

The exhaustion of - i'.iy's
panel meant a total per-
sons have now been questioned
by Judge Conlin, Prosecutor
Delhey and the defense attor-
neys, Louisell and Fink, since

the jury-drawing process began
June 2. Of that number 91 have
been excused—81 by Judge Con-
lin "for cause" and 10 on
peremptory challenges by Lou-
siell or Delhey.

Thirteen others are tentative-
ly seated on the jury but at
least four will probably lose
their seats when additional
peremptory challenges are
made.

As today's session began
Louisell still had 14 peremptory
challenges left while Delhey
had 11. Neither the defense n°"
the prosecution was required

use a peremptory challenge
yesterday although in recent
days Louisell has expended six
such challenges and Delhey has
used four.

Some of the 13 persons now
tentatively seated have been
locked up each day since June 2
while attempts were bein?:

made in the courtroom to si
other prospective jurors.

Others in the group have
been seated only a few days.
Yesterday the group remained
locked in a deliberation room
throughout the day except for a
luncheon break. They were
brought out into the courtroom
at the end of the day's session.
Judge Conlin told them a fresh
panel of prospective jurors
would be brought in today and
then, after warning them
against discussing the case,
reading newspapers or hearing
newscasts about it, dismissed
them for the day. They report
ed back to their locked j;

room at 9:15 a.m. today.

After yesterday's futile ses-
sion in which another 10 per-
sons were rejected on "for
cause" challenges, Judge Conlin
said he plans to call in another
80 prospective jurors before
"looking at" the possibility of
moving the trial site to another
county. If today's group of 40
persons are unable to fill the
vacant seats in the jury box
another 40 will be summoned
next week, Judge Conlin said.
If the second panel fails to pro-
duce a jury, serious considera-
tion will be given to the change
of venue Louisell and Fink have
been demanding.

"The present pace is about
what could ' been expect-
ed," Judge said late yes-
terday. "It we're going to give
this county a fair test on
obtaining an unbiased jury we
should go on for a while longer.
I'd estimate it will take about
two weeks to go through these
two panels. At the end of that
time we'll take a look at where
we are."

In two weeks there well could
be a clear picture of the status
of the trial. But at 3 p.m. yes-
terday there was little doubt
where the trial was—it was
stopped on dead center.

Throughout the long day no
one was ever seated in Jury
Chair Number 14 and the rea-

"ves downcast, John Nor-
iit Collins walks to Circuit
Court where he spent his 23rd
birthday anniversary listen-
ing to the jury-selection proc-
ess in his murder case.

sons which brought rejection to
the 10 candidates for that seat
ranged from vacation trips to
strong opinions on Collins' guilt
or innocence.

Although some prospective
jurors questioned in the past
three weeks have expressed
sympathy for Collins, none
related to him as closely as did
a young Ypsilanti man who was
examined and excused yester-
day.

The youth, dressed in a sport
coat and wearing a striped
shirt and tie, told Prosecutor
Dehey he "identified" with Col-
lins.

"I'm putting myself in Mr.
Collins' position," the young
man said. "I wouldn't want to
be in that position. I identify
with him. Possibly that would
cause me difficulty in making a
decision."

He said the quality of the
people's proof against Collins
would probably have to be
greater to convince him of the
d ' ' it's guilt because of his

cation" with the
accused killer.

The young man, who is in his
second year at Lansing Com-
munity College in Lansing, told

Delhey the home of his parents
is about a block from the dwell-
ing of Michigan State Police
Sgt. David A. Leik in Ypsilanti.

It is in the basement of Leik's
home at 1307 Roosevelt Ave.
that police say Collins stran-
gled Karen Sue Beineman last
July 23. Leik is scheduled to be
a key witness for Prosecutor
Delhey when the trial gets
under say.

The Community College stu-
dent told Fink he would not be
"embrassed" to face Sgt. Leik
if he should be seated on the
jury and a verdict of not guilty
were returned.

When the young man was
asked to step out of the court-
room Prosecutor Delhey told
Judge Conlin that it was "obvi-
ous" from the answers given
that the student was unfit to sit
as an unbiased juror. But Fink
argued for his right to Chair
Number 14. The question was
resolved by a challenge "for
cause" after the student told
Judge Conlin he "might"
require a higher degree of
proof to find Collins guilty
because of his "identification"
with the accused.

Without a doubt the most col-
orful person to appear yester-
day as a prospective juror was
a middle-aged Ypsilanti man
who has worked for the Ford
Motor Co. for 34 years. Appar-
ently an inveterate talker, the
man scarcely gave Judge Con-
lin, Delhey or Fink a chance to
complete questions before
bursting forth with volleys of
information and opinion. At one
point he interrupted an instruc-
tion by Judge CConlin by a
wave of his hand and the
words, "Just a minute, judge."

"The government comes f;"^
and if you say I must ser

will," he told the judge. 11. s»
my duty as an American to
and although I'm not
' serve on a murder tri-
al, I will."

He startled Fink, Louisell,
Delhey an^ Tn^n. f n n 7 "i
moments,

answer to a question about
believing testimony from police
officers, he r;'* ! !

"Some po{; ers could
do wrong. You know those T1' "
land Park police officers i: •
caught stealing, why they
cleaned out a warehouse out,
stole it all. They had to fire
them all. You read about that."

Fink's question: "Did you
know those officers were
acquitted?" was objected to by
Delhey and Judge Conlin sus-
tained it.

(As the Ypsilanti man had
suggested, Fink and '""• !
had "read about" the

Park case. They in fact were
the defense attorneys for the
accused police officers, won
them acquittals and full resto-
ration to duty

Before Jud^,.

the man "for cause" the Ford
vwrker told the court America
was a "great country. . . I'm
glad I was born here. . . over
aero ' T get a
chain : ' '• this on a
murder charge. . ." He left aft-
er telling the judge he would be
happy to come back and "help
you out. . . help straighten out
this mess..."

The long arm of coincidence
was never more apparent than
yesterday when an Ypsilanti
woman appeared as a prospec-
tive juror and told Judge Con-
Ln her son's roommate at East-
ern Michigan University was a
fraternity brother of Collins. In
addition, she said Mrs. Larry
Mathieson, wife of a key prose-
cution witness in the tiral, was
io serve in her son's wedding
pcrty in August. Mathieson, an
Eastern Michigan University
I security guard and part-time
student, played a major role in
iJentification of Collins as an
EMU students in the days
immediately preceding his
arrest. The woman was excus-
ed "for cause."

Also excused was an Ypsilanti
man who acted as Sheriff Doug-
Ja? J. Harvey's baseball scorer
in a Little League game last
week. The man said he had
known Harvey for about five
years and their boys played
ball together. He said last week
he kept the official score for a
Harvey-coached team but he
told Jud ;\ he would not
be embas • « 10 return a not
guilty verdict in the Collins
case.

However he was excused
when be told Assistant Prosecu-

•oker T. Williams he
,.-«,n. sav Foil ins was guilty

-'bee; e has been
"ccused. ..—lams' question-
of the Ypsilanti man was the

.'^l active participation by the
c;,i,sistant prosecutor since he
entered the jury-drawing
beside Delhey on Monday.

The cousin of 1\Tn'1 ^aebler,
former U.S. con^ i from
A"" A^-bor and u ..liilc Demo-

cader, was excused aft-
n;i n^ told Louisell he had a
"tentative opinion" which was
"slightly unfavorable" to Col-
lins. Some evidence to the con-
'rary would be necessary to
inge that opinion, the Stac-
ker relative said.

Those statements actually
brought his removal from the
panel although earlier he said
he knew both Chief Assistant
Prosecutor Casper Kast and
Assistant Prosecutor Jerome
Farmer II. He said he and Kast
were members of the same
church and Farmer had acted

-11' ^"il counsel to another per-
il whom he had had real
i ot.a n. dealings. He said as a
real estate salesman he would
suffer economic loss if required
to serve on a prolonged jury
^ial.

)thers excused yesterday
included a .microbiologist
employed at St. Joseph Mercy
Hospital who is on 24-hour call
and whose duties include anal-
ysis in meningitis cases; a
woman employed in the Gradu-
ate School office at Eastern
Michigan University who said
she "rather thought" she had
formed an opinion on the case;

a Univ ersity of Michigan
professor who is committed to
teach a graduate course in his-
tory in July and August; and an

-^.nn Arbor man who had
planned an annual vacation
with his wife in July.

The first person excused yes-
terday was a woman who is a
native of Ireland and who had
planned a return trip to her
homeland on July 12.

"Certainly for a trip back to
Ireland an excuse is deserved,"
Judge Conlin told the woman,