Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 90, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1912 — YEARS FOR MURDER. [ARTICLE]

YEARS FOR MURDER.

Day and Joseph Hubbhrd Convicted at Watseka, 111, For the Marte of Melvin Braddick. y Roy Day and Joseph Hubbard, the two men who were arrested atLee last* spring and confined in the Jasper county jail for some time awaiting a charge of chicken stealing and who were released following a trial? at Kentland, because of insufficient evidence to convict, were convicted of murder by a Jury at last Saturday and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of .fourteen years. They were, a part of the bad gang that operated near Lee for some time and afre supposed to have been responsible for chicken stealing, game law violations and even worse crimes. Occasionally a steer disappeared and its loss was generally almost traced to this gang. Orin Day, who shot Harry Ar rick in a gambling room at Monticello, is a brother of Roy Day and is thought to have been implicated with them in the affair for which Roy and Hubbard were convicted. It is the opinion of Sheriff Hoover that Orin Day was the one who fired the shot, that killed Melvin Braddick. The following story of the crime and the conviction is taken from a Watseka, paper. Roy Day and Joseph Hubbard were found guilty of the murder of Melvin Braddick in a verdict handed down at midnight Saturday night, at Watseka, 111. The jury fllxed the punishment at fourteen years in the penitentiary for each of the defendants. The prisoners broke down and wept with their families when the verdict was read by Judge Hooper, who had been called from bis home to receive it. There were a few other people in the court room who heard the verdict read. _ When judge Hooper arrived and received the verdict, he found an error in it and sent the jury back with an additional instruction. They remained out for over half an hour and then returned with the corrected verdict. A motion for a new trial was made by Attorney O. F. Morgan on behalf of the defense and arguments will be heard on this motion next Monday. Until that time the prisoners will be held in the county jail and they will not be -sentenced until this motion is decided. The verdict of guilty upholds the theory of the state that Day and Hubbard were men of Iron nerve: that dp the night of the murder they returned to'their homes in a ten'mile walk, and that the next morning they got up and went to Gilman, in comgot up and went to Gilman, in comled with the crowd that were seeking for them. The trial of the cade, presented a harder fight than had been anticipated byJudge Hooper or any of the lawyers, who had anticipated that it would last only a few days. On the contrary it lasted over a week.