“You had been out there before?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How did you get out there?”
“I rode my bike.”
“Did anyone go out there with you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who?”
“Jimmy Eaton.”
“Jimmy Eaton is a boy about your age?”
“Six months older.”
“And how did he get out there?”
“He’d ride his bike.”
“Now, why did you go out there, George? What were you doing out there?”
“Oh, just playing.”
“Why did you go out there to play?”
“Well, it was a good place to ride our bikes. There’s a road near there and cars hardly ever go on it. The folks didn’t want us to ride our bicycles on any of the main highways because of the traffic and—well, we used to go out there. There’d been an old house up on the hill and the people had moved away or something and the house had started to cave in and—oh, we just used to go out there and hunt bird eggs and play and talk and things.”
“How long had you been going out there?”
“Oh, off and on for about six or eight months.”
“Now did you notice that a hole had been dug up there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When did you notice that?”
“Well, the first time we seen it was on Friday.”
“That would be Friday, the ninth?” Vandling asked.
“Yes, sir. I guess so. The ninth. Yes.”
“And what time did you go out there?”
“Along in the afternoon, about three or four o’clock.”
“And what did you see?”
“We saw this hole.”
“Can you describe the hole?”
“Well, it was a big hole.”
“About how big, George? Now this is important. Can you hold your hands to show about how big?”
The boy held his hands apart.
“Indicating a distance of about three and a half feet,” Vandling said. “Now about how long was it?”
“Long enough so you could lie down in it and still have lots of room.”
“You mean lie down straight out, stretched out?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How deep was it?”
George stood up and placed his hand about even with his stomach. “It came up to here.”
“Had you been out there on Thursday, the eighth?”
“No, sir.”
“Had you been out there on Wednesday, the seventh?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was that hole there then?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“What was there at the place where the hole was?”
“Just ground.”
“Now when you went out Friday, at four o’clock, the hole was there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That hole was completed?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What kind of a hole was it?”
“A good hole.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, it had been made with a shovel so it was straight down. The sides were straight. The comers were good and clear. It was a nice hole.”
“What had been done with the dirt which was taken from that hole, George?”
“That dirt had been piled up over on the side.”
“Which side?”
“Both sides.”
“You mean not on the ends of the hole but on the sides of the hole?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And what about the bottom of the hole?”
“It was just nice and even. It was a good hole.”
“And this hole was there on Friday, the ninth, in the afternoon?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And it was not there on Wednesday?”
“No, sir.”
“Were you boys out there Saturday?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And what did you do?”
“We played in the hole.”
“How did you play in it?”
“Oh, we’d jump down in it, and then we played it was a fort and then we’d lie down so as to be out of sight and see if birds would come close and—oh, we just played.”
“Were you out there Sunday?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you go out there Monday?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you go out there Tuesday, the thirteenth?”
“You mean this last Tuesday?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, we went out there.”
“And what had happened?”
“Well, the hole had all been filled in.”
“So what did you do, if anything?”
“Well, I told my dad that—”
“Never mind what you told anyone, George. What did you do?”
“Well, we played.”
“And then what?”
“Then we went home.”
“And did you return again that day?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How soon after you got home?”
“About an hour afterward.”
“Who went with you?”
“My dad and Jimmy.”
“And your dad is Martin Medford, the man who is here in court?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That’s all,” Vandling said.
“No questions,” Mason said, “at least at the present time. I may state, Your Honor, that with some of these witnesses, where the importance of the testimony is not readily apparent, I might like to recall them for cross-examination if it appears that the testimony should subsequently be connected with matters of importance to the defendant’s case.”
“These witnesses are all important,” Vandling said. “I can assure the Court and counsel of that. I may also assure counsel that the prosecution in this case is just as anxious as the defense to get at the truth of the matter and we will have no objection to counsel recalling any witness that he may desire for any cross-examination at any time, subject only to the fact that the cross-examination must be pertinent.”
Judge Siler, the magistrate conducting the hearing, said, “All right, we’ll consider that in the nature of a stipulation. Defense has that right.”
“My next witness will be Martin Medford,” Vandling said.
Martin Medford testified that he was the father of George; that on the late afternoon of the thirteenth the boy had returned and told him about the hole having been filled in; that he had decided that the matter should be looked into, had taken a shovel and driven out to the place, accompanied by his son and Jimmy Eaton: that he had found the soil rather loose over the area indicated and had dug down in the hole; that at a distance of approximately two and a half feet he had encountered a rather yielding obstruction; that he had scraped away the dirt and found that this was the leg of a man; that he had immediately discontinued his digging and rushed to a telephone where he had notified the sheriff.
“Cross-examine,” Vandling said.
“You returned to the place with the sheriff?” Mason asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“And stood there while the hole was excavated?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you help in the digging?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What was uncovered?”
“The body of a man.”
“How was it dressed?”
“In pajamas.”
“And that was all?”
“That was all.”
“No further questions,” Mason said.
The sheriff took the stand, told of going out with two deputies to the location indicated by Martin Medford. There they excavated the dirt which had apparently recently been placed in the hole, that is, the dirt had not settled. It was soft, although there had been some tramping around on the top of the hole.