Delhey Tells Jury to Use Common Sense

Delhey Tells Jury 10 Use Common Sense

Prosecutor William F. Delhey
opened the final argument for
the people by dividing the case
against John Norman Collins

' five parts: Karen Sue
Bineman and her actions on
July 23, 1969, Collins and his
actions on that date, the base-
ment of the David A. Leik
home, the scientific evidence
and the defense.

He told the jury that while it
must be guided by the doctrine
of "reasonable doubt" in its
deliberations, the members
should also remain cognizant of
"common sense" when reach-
ing a verdict.

"Time is important in this
case," Delhey said. "Remem-
ber, time is an estimate made
by a person after an event has
happened."

The prosecutor then carefully
traced Miss Beineman's move-
July 23, 1969, as
witnesses' testimo-
ny. He said she left her room in
Downing Hall on the Eastern
Michigan University campus
some time after 12:15 p.m. and
arrived at the Wigs By Joan
Shop on N. Washington St. after
12:30 p.m. He said she received
the wig she had ordered, told
Mrs. Joan Goshe and Mrs.
Patricia Spaulding in the shop
that a, man on a motorcycle
was going to give her a ride
back to the campus and then
got on the motorcycle with a
man and they rode off.

She was not seen alive again
and her nude body was found
in a ditch off Huron River Dr.
and Riverside Dr. in Ann Arbor

Township, Delhey told the jury.

"The autopsy shows she was
hit on the side of the head with
a blunt instrument. We don't
know what kind, it could have
been a fist," Delhey said.
"There was bleeding in the
brain but not much external
bleeding, an ounce or less. The
blow was severe enough to cause
death had not something else
intervened."

She was killed by strangula-
tion and marks on her ankles
and wrists indicate she was
bound to "prevent escape and
gagged to prevent an outcry,"
Delhey told the jury.

Her digestive processes
stopped 30 minutes to three
hours after her last meal at
noon.

"Extreme fear can stop those
processes," the prosecutor said.
"Tying and gagging could have
caused that fear."

In the "Collins section" of his
address, Delhey ticked off the
girls who testified they had
seen the defendant on the day
of the murder riding a motorcy-
cle in the EMU campus area.
(The jury still does not official-
ly know that three of the girls—
Sandra Herrera, Eileen Gale
a n;.d 'Mary Thorn ppon -have
said Collins attend pick
them up after t-nLuuiii.cring
them on Ypsilanti streets. The
jurors were not p'"—'«"d to
hear testimony ah con-
versation the giria saiu they
had with Collins.)

Delhey said the testimony of
other girls, especially that of
Linda Campbell, an ex-girl

•old Arnold
had been

WILLIAM F. DELHEY

friend, places Collins on a blue
Triumph motorcycle at 12:30
p.m. on July 23, 1969, in the
general area Miss Beineman
would have been walking to the
wig shop.

He said the testimony of the
two wig shop women, Mrs.
Joan Goshe and Mrs. Patricia
Spaulding, with that of the
Chocolate Shop waitress, Miss
Carol Wieczerca, places Collins
on the cycle with Miss Beine-
man. He noted Mrs. Spaulding
told of seeing a square, rear-
view mirror on the tr'otnrr^pio
and a former girl fr

Naylor, later said thui- t»i»u -.<.
only type of mirror kept on his
cycle.

Delhey noted that testimony
showed Collins did not return to
his apartment in Ypsilanti until
4 p.m. on the day of the mur-

der. He said <
Davis to say '

motc iding early in the
afteriiooii iiither than late as
Davis testified it had been. He
said the night that police ques-
tioned and released Collins,
the defendant told Davis he
(Collins) was a murder suspect.
He said later he left the apart-
ment with a box and a blanket
and when he returned told Dav-
is he had "got rid of" the
materials.

In the "Leik" section of Del-
hey's summation, he said tes-
timony showed when the family
returned from vacation they
found black scuff marks on the
kitchen floor and the next
morning discovered black paint
sprayed on the basement floor.
The paint can, a bottle of ammo-
nia and an empty soap box
were missing from the base-
ment, Delhey said.

He recalled the testimony of
Mrs. Marjorie Barnes, a Leik
neighbor, who said she saw a
man who . fed the family dog
during the vacation leave at
one time on n motorcycle car-
rying a soap isaid when
the Leiks rclmiieu and ques-
tioned Collins about the painted
basement he denied knowledge
of it. The prosecutor noted
thpfo vie no evidence of forced

entry to the Leik home.

"It would have been a very
good burglar indeed to enter a
house and leave no sign of for-
cible entry," Delhey said. "And
a burglar who took only a
spray paint can, a bottle of
ammonia and an empty soap
box is neither a reasonable or a
rational possibility."

He noted that 509 hairs com-
parable to those left on the
b. floor of the Leik
ho re found in the under-
clothing of Miss Beineman.

"Is it conceivable that Miss
Beineman met death in a com-
mercial barber shop in down-
town Ypsilanti on July 23?"
Delhey asked. "No, it was in a
home barber shop."

He said analysis showed the
h;' tie clothing and those
in .-„ ;. ._ement were similiar in
"every respect." He noted that
Dr. Vincent B. Guinn testified
that only 30 groups of four per-
sons each in the United States
could have the same hair
characteristics as those found in
the two samples submitted by
the prosecution.

In his "defense" section,
Delhey implied that Collins had
paid his motorcycle bill at the
J. and J. Shop on July 23 with
money taken from the dying
Karen Sue Beineman. He noted

Collins Trial Stories
By William B. Trevnl

Collins had no money on July
22 but the following day paid a
$20.03 bill at the shop. He said
the shop workers account for
Collins' presence for only one
hour on July 23.

"What about the two hours
until 4 p.m.?" the prosecutor
asked.

Delhey dismissed the "man-
nequin incident" (involving an
unsuccessful police stake-out, at
the spot where the body was
found) by saying a tracking dog
and a man seen briefly by sev-
eral members of the stake-out
crew "went to the same party."
(The dog led officers to a house
where a party was in progress.)

In the "scientific" section of
his summation, Delhey said
"everything done in the Leik
basement was an attempt to
conceal and disguise."

He said the fact that none of
Collins' prints were found in
the Leik house was "annoy-
ing."

' "But if we found one or 100 of
his prints there, what is the sig-
nificance? He had a right to be
there," the prosecutor said. He
said fingerprints "are easily
wiped off."

"Delhey accused ' le-
fense of attempting ;s;iike
it look like M neman
"used heroin or . !ie" by
stressing the alkaloid found in
her blood.

"We've shown this to be caf-
feine, found in coffee," he said.
He said the .03 alcohol content
found in the body could have
come from decomposition of
,J,opfl as^flg scientist testified. ^