The Third Time's the Charm: Tacoma Court Begins Murder Trial of Mortgage Foreclosure Killer

Tacoma, March 12.—This morning the third trial of William M. White on the charge of murder in the first degree began in the district court. The case is an old one. William M. White held a mortgage on farm property owned by James McMillan, at Connell's Prairie, in the Puyallup Valley, about 2½ miles from Tacoma. White foreclosed the mortgage and took possession of the premises. It is alleged that McMillan went on to the farm to cut hay, and went armed with a rifle and a revolver to protect himself against White. White forbade McMillan from cutting the hay, and in an altercation which followed both McMillan and White shot at each other. White having a revolver in his hand, McMillan received a shot from the effect of which he almost instantly died. This was July 17, 1886.

The following November White was tried on an indictment charging him with murder in the first degree. The jury disagreed, and June 30, 1887, another trial has been had. The jury this time brought in a verdict of murder in the second degree. White was thereupon sentenced to 10 years in the penitentiary and was taken to that institution. He served about a year or his time, when he was released on bail in the sum of $9,000, the case in the meantime having been taken to the supreme court, by which it was set back for a new trial. This step was on the part of the district court, which quashed the indictment on the ground that women grand jury that indicted White was not legal.

White was indicted again and the trial now begun is upon that indictment. Two Seattle lawyers appear in the case, one for the prosecution and one for the defense. Judge Parsons, an old friend of the McMillan family when they lived in Iowa, appears as prosecutor with Fremont Campbell, the district attorney, and Col. J. O. Haines appears for the defense and has associated with him W. H. Doolittle of this city.

The selection of a jury consumed the entire day. A panel of 30 jurors was quickly exhausted and an open venire for 30 more was issued at noon. Thirty-seven jurors all told were examined as to their qualifications and finally, just before the hour of adjournment, after the prosecution had exhausted their allowance of challenges, a jury was found as follows: D. W. Witham, Joseph Cheeseman, J. L. Lynn, William Nelson, W. D. Robinson, F. J. Horton, John Conna, Hugo Olin, Charles Glockier, J. W. Dow, A. S. Miller and William Ferris. John Conna is a colored man and is connected with the office of Allen C. Mason. The jury was delivered into the hands of two bailiffs who will exercise rigid supervision over their maneuvers.