100 years ago in Spokane: A murderer’s trial appeal led to an even harsher conviction

Louis Adams (sometimes rendered Adamo) was convicted of murder for the second time, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Adams had reason to regret that an appeals court had granted him a re-trial. The first time, the verdict was second-degree murder. This time, the verdict was first-degree murder

When deputies led Adams out of the courtroom, he fainted and was carried to the jail’s hospital ward. He did not regain consciousness for a half-hour.

Adams was convicted of murdering Louis Guaracio (or Gracio) at a Spokane fruit warehouse, after a long-running feud.

The prosecutor called it a “clear case of premeditated murder,” and the jury apparently agreed. The jury did not recommend the death penalty.

From the traffic beat: Mrs. L.C. Critzer took Loveland Cody to court on charges that he drove recklessly and ran into her horse team.

She must have been surprised to walk into the courtroom and find it filled with people from her community, Stevens township, complaining that she – not Cody – was the true “road hog.”

D. Jones, the rural letter carrier, obtained a warrant charging Critzer with “refusing to give half the road.” She was arrested and awaiting her own trial. The Cody trial was continued for 60 days.

Also on this date

(From onthisday.com)

1960: Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in an Atlanta sit-in protest.

1973: Ringo Starr releases music single “Photograph” in the U.K.