Dispatch, March 30, 1889

THE TAYLOR TRIAL.

Moral -- Murder

The Prisoner Found Guilty and Given Five Years.

[Special telegram to the Dispatch.]

ACCOMACK COURTHOUSE via TASLEY, Va., March 29. -- The trial of Mrs. Virginia Taylor, charged with killing her husband, ended about 1 o'clock to-day, when the jury rendered their verdict, finding the prisoner guilty and fixing her punishment at five years in the penitentiary. When the court reassembled this morning the jury had not arrived at a verdict. After again remaining out for more than an hour they came in and asked that the charge be read to them again. The clerk read the charge, which directs that the jury might find the prisoner guilty of murder in the first or second degree or of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, or might acquit her. The jury retired again, and after remaining out half an hour returned with the verdict of guilty, as stated above. Mrs. Taylor, who had been sitting in the bar since the opening of the court, appeared slightly agitated and looked more serious than usual as the jury came in, but when the verdict was pronounced she displayed remarkable composure.

Thomas W. Russell, counsel for the accused, moved an arrest of judgment for a new trial for the prisoner on the ground that the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence. In the absence of Mr. Neely, senior counsel for the accused, his Hon. Judge Garrison set next Monday for the hearing of the motion for a new trial.

While there is a wide diversity of opinion here in regard to the case, the verdict is generally approved by those best acquainted with the facts. It is stated that on the first ballot the jury stood eleven for conviction, with from five to eighteen years in the penitentiary, and one for acquittal or short confinement in the county jail. Long conferences and mutual concessions finally enabled the jury to reach a verdict.

The jury was then dismissed, and after a short conference with her counsel Mrs. Taylor was given into the hands of the Sheriff, who conducted her to jail.

Untitled

Moral -- Other

Accomac C. H.

Persons arriving here from Belle Haven, in the extreme southern part of Accomack, report that the dead body of an unknown white man was found there yesterday on the edge of a pine thicket. His face and neck had been badly mutilated and his eyes picked out by buzzards. It is not known here who the dead man is, but it is supposed by many to be Frank Powell, a well-known store clerk who had been till recently employed by Turlington Brothers of Fair Oaks. They had recently had some trouble with him and dismissed him from their employment. Powell has not been heard from for some time, but at last accounts he was in the southern part of Accomack and had been drinking very hard.