Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1907 — JUDGE HARGIS FREED. [ARTICLE]

JUDGE HARGIS FREED.

For the Second Time a Jury Finds Him Not Guilty. At Lexington, Ky., the jury in the case of Judge James Hargis, charged with the murder of Thomas Cockrill, returned a verdict of not guilty. Almost three years after the shooting of Town Marshal Cockrill-at Jackson the verdict was rendered in the case of the first of those who were charged jointly with the murder, and another chapter in the famous Breathitt county feud annals is concluded. June 21, 1904, Cockrill was shot in the court house at Jackson. He died at Lexington, where he was taken for medical treatment. During the trial several witnesses swore that Judge Hargis, his brothers and Sheriff Ed. Callahan had entered a murder conspiracy, promising immunity to any one who would shoot Cockrill, Dr. B. D. Cox and J. B. Marcum, all three of whom since then have been killed. The defense, however, presented testimony tending to disprove the conspiracy charge, and Hargis, testifying on his own behalf, denied all connection with the shooting. Curt Jett, who confessed killing Marcum, for which be was given a life sentence, was a witness against Hargis. The Hargis case had been on trial longer than two weeks. More than fifty witnesses were examined. This is the second acquittal of Hargis, he having been declared not guilty of the murder of James B. Marcum at his trial at Beattyville last July.