Windham County Observer

Sanity Of Hewitt Is To Be Probed By Medical Board

Application Of Defense Counsel For Indicted Slayer Is Granted By Judge Samuel Mellitz.

Whether John Martin Hewitt, 17, is to stand trial charged with first degree murder, as indicated by a grand jury, in the hammer-knife slaying of Norman W. Amidon, 34, his Abington employer, Dec. 4, or will be committed to a State Hospital as criminally insane, may rest largely upon findings of sanity board appointed by Judge Samuel Mellitz in Windham County Superior court, criminal side, at Willimantic last week. Granting an application by defense counsel to have such examination of his client's mental state made, Judge Mellitz appointed Drs. Harold A. Bancroft of Hartford and Louis H. Cohen of the Norwich State Hospital. They are scheduled to examine the accused and report their findings March 14 at 11 to the court.

Prior to grand jury action and formal presentation of the case in court, Hewitt has been examined at the Windham County jail at Brooklyn several times by Dr. R. L. Leake, superintendent of Connecticut State Hospital, noted alienist, acting in behalf of State's Attorney Howard C. Bradford and County Detective Rowe H. Wheeler.