The Topeka State Journal

KILLED BY A MAN

Defense Is Indicated by Attorney in Carman Trial

In His Opening Address to the Jury Today.

Mineola, Oct. 22. After an hour and a quarter's examination Farrell, the last state witness in the Carman case, was excused and the state announced it rested its case. George M. Levy of Mrs. Carman's counsel then began his opening address.

"We will prove," said Mr. Levy, "that this crime was not committed by Mrs. Carman, but by a man whose motive we do not know."

Mr. Levy told of Mrs. Carman's actions on the day and night of the murder. He said she went to New York during the day, contracted a headache and after dinner went to bed.

"Mrs. Carman will tell you that she then heard a shot and some commotion downstairs," he said. This was the first definite declaration from the defense that she was to testify.

"She immediately put on a kimono and leaned over the banisters. She did not go into the office, because Dr. Carman had forbidden her to do so.

"She will admit all about the telephonic instrument and she will tell you that she had it installed to find out if the things she had heard about the doctor's relations with women were true. We will show you that there can be no suspicion attached to Mrs. Carman's talking with me because I was a friend of the family and had been for years. As to the witness, Farrell; we will prove him a liar."

A vigorous assault on the testimony given yesterday by Celia Coleman, the Carman maid, was begun by the defense with its first witness, Benedict Cheesman, a negro stenographer of New York. Cheesman testified that he and two negro lawyers called on Celia in New York on July 14, last, and that the lawyers questioned Celia about her knowledge of the crime while he took down questions and answers in shorthand. He identified a typewritten statement as the one she had made.

In it Celia said she wanted to tell the whole truth. She was not under oath, however, and she made no mention of Mrs. Carman's having shown her a revolver.

The court stenographer read in a monotone the long statement taken down by Cheesman and alleged to have been made by Celia. As he did so the jurors leaned back in their chairs and several closed their eyes.

Recess was taken at 12:30 o'clock for luncheon with Cheesman still on the stand.

Mineola, Oct. 22. Mrs. Florence Conklin Carman, on trial as the slayer of Mrs. Louise Bailey, entered the tiny court room in the Nassau county court house here on this the fourth day of her trial expecting to take the stand this afternoon as her own chief witness. Presentation of the state's case, it was thought, would be concluded this forenoon. Frank Farrell, who testified yesterday that he had seen a woman running from the window through which the shot was fired, around the Carman house to the rear, was recalled to the stand for a continuation of his cross-examination.

As on preceding days, the court room was crowded with women. Elizabeth Carman, the 12 year old daughter of the defendant, was permitted to sit with her mother at the counsel table.

John Graham, Mrs. Carman's lawyer, questioned Farrell closely about his movements on the day of the murder. The story related by the witness was practically the same as that given on direct examination.