Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1915 — GRANGER “NOT GUILTY” VERDICT OF JURY [ARTICLE]

GRANGER “NOT GUILTY” VERDICT OF JURY

Father and Son Acquitted of Burglary Charge—Evidence Not Sufficient For Conviction. Henry Granger and son, Roy, were acquitted by the jury that tried them on a charge of burglarizing the ranch house of Joseph Adams, near Thayer. The jury brought in its verdict ait 9:30 Thursday evening after it had been out for about five hours. The result was no surprise to those who had heard the testimony, although they had expected that the result would be arrived at sooner. Even the attorneys for the state did not expect a conviction. The state had pinned its case on the evidence of Charles Shinkle and his character was made the target of the defense, and some twenty residents of Thayer and Roselawn testified that Shinkle could not be believed. Henry Granger has been a defendant in the courts on a number of occasions but has always escaped punishment on serious charges. With justice to him, The Republican wishes to say that the finding of the jury was just, for there was insufficient evidence for conviction and the doubt must have been in the minds of all whether the charge of Shinkle had any truth in it. Since Hank and his family have left Newton county and taken up their residence in Lake, where little if any attention is paid to liquor law violations, it will probably be some time before the r authorities of Jasper or Newton county will have occasion to prosecute them again. In fact, the many times that Hank has crawled through the eye of a needle, so to speak, when the attorneys for the state thought they had him where he could not get away, has to some extent discouraged the attorneys and they realize that Hank is almost a law unto himself in the river district.