MORASCH CASE WILL
GO TO THE JURY TODAY.
Accused Woman Again Says She Fled
Because Taggart Threat-
ened Her.
Arguments were begun in the case of Mrs. Sarah Morasch, accused of having poisoned 4-year-old Ruth Miller on February 12, by attorneys in the Wyandotte county district court yesterday afternoon. The case will go to the jury today. This is Mrs. Morasch's second trial.
The defendant, who has shown remarkable nerve throughout the long sessions, was put on the witness stand early yesterday and kept there until evening.
The two small children of Mrs. Morasch, with her almost constantly since the beginning of the second trial, were not in the court room yesterday. Nellie and Hattie, 10 and 16 years old respectively, had become tired of standing, first on one foot and then on another, listening to prosaic and endless banterings between the attorneys in a heated atmosphere and gone off to play in the court house back yard. The east windows, however, were opened occasionally during the day, then while the defendant battled for her life the voices of the children could plainly be heard as they romped about on the grass, but the mother never once seemed to notice it.
The story told by the accused woman did not vary greatly from the one told at the first trial and at the preliminary hearing in Judge Newhall's court. She denied assertions made by some farmers who live near Belton and Peculiar, Mo., to the effect that she and Blanche had passed along that route on the way to Harrisonville and had said she worked on some ranch in the neighborhood.
In Harrisonville, she said, she had obtained employment for herself at a restaurant. She worked there only one day and the receipts amounted in full to only 35 cents. Her employer then gave her 45 cents and discharged her Although her wages were 10 cents ahead of the receipts, she testified that she thought this a good business showing for a Harrisonville restaurant.
While telling the jury of Prosecutor Taggart's attitude to her in his private office a few nights before the flight to Harrisonville when, it is alleged by the defense, he got extremely nervous and frightened the defendant, Mrs. Morasch laughed. She was then asked by the county attorney if she had felt more nervous on that occasion that at the present one when she is being tried for her life. She said that she had been more nervous. She was then dismissed and the arguments for the state by Assistant County Attorney Higgins followed.
