100 years ago in Spokane: New layers came to light in Frank Brinton murder trial, including what spurred Maurice Codd’s fateful visit to Granite Building

The defense rested in the Maurice P. Codd murder trial – without putting the defendant on the stand.

Yet Codd’s brother was called to the stand as a character witness. He told the jury that Codd had been elected president of the Gonzaga University student body “by a unanimous vote,” served honorably in the Army and was on leave as a medical student at Northwestern University.

The defense also called Frances Shire, a nurse, to the stand. She testified that Codd had been visiting his sick mother on her deathbed the afternoon of the fatal fight at the Granite Building. She painted him as a doting and attentive son. She also shed light on why Codd had gone to the Granite Building the night of the fight.

He told her he was going to visit “old Mrs. Green,” an old friend of his mother’s.

On cross-examination, however, the nurse admitted that Codd had been drinking that evening – but she added, “not to any great extent … he was not so drunk but that he could take care of himself.”

The defense also called two men whose testimony tended to discredit some of that of Spokane police officer C.E. Wagner, who said he was approaching the two men when he witnessed Codd throw Frank P. Brinton over the railing.

The two defense witnesses said Wagner told them shortly after that he could have stopped the entire affair if he had arrived there in time “to see it.”

Other witnesses indicated that Brinton had been drinking moonshine that night.