Headline: Jury Easily Found for Roadcap Trial
Phillip Ritchie Murder: Post #7
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This article was originally published in The Harrisonburg Daily News on February 5, 1907.
Charles R. Roadcap was placed on trial in Circuit Court yesterday for the murder of Philip Ritchie, whom, it is alleged, he stabbed to death in Brock's Gap on the night of December 25.
The case was called immediately after the noon recess and each side having announced itself ready, the work of procuring a jury was forthwith begun. This proved no difficult task.
Contrary to experience in the recent trials of Thomas Lam and Israel Mongold, charged with capital offenses, only one venire man of the panel had formed any opinion about the guilt or innocence of the accused, and three was the limit of those who had conscientious scruples against the infliction of the death penalty. The jury, as sworn, is comprised of Worth Philips, R.M. Edwards, Homer P. Billyard, Daniel H. Cline, Henry M. Henkel, J. M. Caldwell, J. P. Brown, Jacob Layman, L. C. Haney, Charles R. Layman, Abram W. Koontz, and B. Frank Rolston.
The facts on which the prosecution is based were outlined to the jury in a brief opening statement by the Commonwealth's Attorney. Mr. Conrad said that although a large number of witnesses had been summoned by both sides, yet the main facts at issue would be established by the testimony of a few only. There were present, he said, only three or four persons, in addition to the dead man, on the Caldwell premises, where the murder was committed, on Christmas night, when Philip Ritchie received the stab on the left side which ended his life.
The Caldwell premises, the home of Ritchie's daughter Eva wife of Hinton Caldwell, are located a few miles south of Fulk's Run in a mountain hollow. The house is a small two-story building, with two rooms on the first floor, and is enclosed by a paling fence. At the front of the house, which faces east, is a porch. From the porch a path leads to the yard gate and at some little distance from the gate crosses a drain. Philip Ritchie's home was located half a mile southeast of that of the Caldwell's.
On the night in question Philip Ritchie, accompanied by a friend or two, returned home in an intoxicated condition. Upon his arrival, he ascertained that Charles Roadcap, the accused and a man by the name of Abner Donovan were at Caldwell's. Knowing that Hinton Caldwell was absent from home, (being at work in West Virginia), the father regarded their presence there objectionable and started for the house, accompanied by Nimrod Dove.
After his arrival at the house Ritchie called to the men, who were in an upper room, and demanded they leave the house. Roadcap and Donovan both came downstairs and were cursed by Ritchie, who told them to quit the place. Donovan did leave immediately, but Roadcap lingered inside the door. Ritchie had in his hand a small stick or cane and when Roadcap finally stepped out on the porch the former struck at him with the stick, the blow falling short of its mark. Right then and there, before either of the two men had left the porch, Roadcap turned on Ritchie and drove a knife into his side, dealing him a fatal wound.
After Ritchie had been stabbed Roadcap and Donovan went out the path, followed by Ritchie, still very drunk, and Dove. When they had arrived at the drain the two men in the lead turned and stoned Ritchie and his companion, who retreated toward the house. On the way back Ritchie said to Dove: "One of those men stabbed me." Once inside the house Ritchie fell and expired, although his death was not known for some time. Mrs. Caldwell had gone to another room, where her children were in bed, and her father's death was not known until it was discovered by Dove.
It will be proven, said Mr. Conrad, that before Ritchie's arrival at the house, Roadcap said that if Mrs. Caldwell's father "fooled" with him he (Roadcap) would use his knife on him.
Ritchie's wound was several inches deep. In making it Roadcap first drove his knife through the older man's heavy overcoat, a reversible inner (illegible) vest, and his underclothing. (Illegible) blow required to make (illegible) wound, exclaimed Mr. Conrad, (illegible) closing, was intended to do (illegible) jury, and it carried into effect (illegible) threat previously by Roadcap.
The opening statements for the defense was made (illegible) Crawford, who together with D. O. Dechert is counsel for the accused. Mr. Crawford began by saying that, contrary to report, Roadcap had never been charged with a crime prior to being accused of Ritchie's death.
On the night in question Roadcap and Donovan, Mr. Crawford said, stopped at the Caldwell home in a friendly way and were urged by Mrs. Caldwell to remain overnight, she saying that it was Christmas night and she was afraid to be alone. The men accepted the invitation, but Donovan left the place for a short time and went to the home of Ritchie, a married man, who was living in adultery with Sallie Shoemaker, a woman of notoriously bad repute.
Ritchie was absent when Donovan was at his house, but upon his return home he conceived the idea that the two men had desired the presence of Sallie Shoemaker at the Caldwell home that night for a debauch. Incensed at that idea, Ritchie set out at once for Caldwell's to seek revenge.
After he had arrived there he called to the men to come down from upstairs, swearing he would kill them both. Donovan came down in the lead. Roadcap followed. Ritchie made a brutal assault on the latter with a club. The club was three feet in length and as thick as a man's wrist. With it he forced Roadcap against the porch railing, the younger man begging to be let alone. Finally the attack because so vicious that Roadcap, cut off from retreat, struck at Ritchie with a barlow knife. Whether he cut Ritchie or not, said the attorney, we are not prepared to say- there may be some surprising developments right at that point- but he cut at him because Roadcap feared for his life.
Ritchie did not fall when Raodcap cut at him, but followed the men to the drain, 60 or 75 yards from the house.
When Ritchie returned to the house he threw himself on the floor by a cook stove, while Dove fell to the floor likewise by a stove on the other side of the room. No investigation of Ritchie's condition was made at the time, although he had told Dove on the way back from the drain that he was cut. It was not until the next morning that it was learned he was dead.
Dr. C. S. Dodd of Coote's Store, was the only witness examined. Dr. Dodd who made a post-mortem examination, said Ritchie's wound was necessarily fatal. The knife entered the left side between the fouth and fifth ribs, five and a half inches from the medial line. It pierced the lung and muscles of the lower part of the heart, penetrating the heart to a depth of an inch and five-eights. The aorta was pierced. The direction of the wound was a little downward and somewhat toward the center of the chest. It was possible for some men to live 15 minutes after receiving such a wound.
Court convenes this morning at 9:30.
This article was found on NewspaperArchive.com.
