Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1912 — YOUTHS HELD FOR MURDER [ARTICLE]

YOUTHS HELD FOR MURDER

Otis and Lear Davidson Are Accused of Slaying Ella Barham, But Assert Their Innocence. Fort Smith, Ark., Nov. 29. —A coroner’s jury investigating the murder of Miss Ella Barham, aged eighteen years, who was killed near Pleasant Ridge a week ago, returned a verdict charging the shocking crime to Otis Davidson, aged twenty-nine years, son of a justice of the peace, and accusing his seventeen-year-old brother, Lear, with being an accessory before the fact Both boys assert they are innocent and declare they will have no difficulty In proving so before a jury.