“Four masked men came into the bank, all four holding guns,” Bailey said. “They made Mr. Walker, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Teasdale lie down on the floor, then they commenced to take all the money from my cashier’s drawer, then all the money from the safe. As they was leavin’, well, Mr. Walker, he shot at them. And that man”—Bailey pointed to Parnell—“turned and shot all three of them. Then they ran out of the bank.”
“Objection, Your Honor,” Gilman said. “If all four men were masked, how does he know which one did the shooting?”
“Sustained.”
“How much money did the robbers get?” Thomas asked his witness.
“They got nearly six thousand dollars.”
“Six thousand dollars? Is that the total amount of money in the bank?”
Bailey smiled. “No, sir. All the robbers did was clean out our daily working safe. They had no idea that we keep most of the money in a vault in the back of the bank.”
“I have no further questions of this witness,” Thomas said.
“Cross, Mr. Gilman?” the judge asked.
Gilman stood, but he didn’t approach the witness. “You said my client is the one who shot those three men, but the truth is, you don’t know who did the shooting, do you?”
“No sir, I guess not.”
“And if, as you say, all four men were masked, you can’t even testify, with certainty, that Mr. Parnell was one of those who entered the bank, can you?”
“When they was all ridin’ away, this fella’s horse was shot,” Bailey said. “And they captured him. That proves he was one of the ones in the bank.”
Gilman held up his hand. “You are conjecturing now. Listen carefully to my question. Can you testify, with certainty, that Mr. Parnell was one of the four in the bank?”
“Yes, sir. He was wearin’ the same clothes then he’s wearin’ now.”
“You mean his blue shirt?” Gilman turned toward the gallery. “Like the blue shirt Mr. Engle is wearing ?” He pointed to one of the men in the jury. “Or the blue shirt Mr. Puckett is wearing? Or the blue shirt Sheriff Dennis is wearing?”
A buzz went through the courtroom, for Gilman had pointed to three men who were wearing a shirt identical to the one being worn by the prisoner. “Should we consider any of those three men, suspects?”
“No,” the witness replied in a small voice.
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
“Redirect, Mr. Thomas?”
“No redirect, Your Honor.”
Thomas then called Frank Tanner, the man who shot the horse Parnell had been riding. Tanner testified that he had heard shots in the bank, and concerned, had grabbed a rifle, then went outside just in time to see the men exiting the bank, mount their horses, and ride away.
“Do you here testify that the man on trial is one of those who ran from the bank?” Thoams asked.
“Yes.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I had my eyes on him from the moment he left the bank, until I shot his horse.”
“No further questions.”
“Mr. Gilman?” the judge asked.
“Mr. Tanner, as they were leaving, did you have it in mind to kill the horse Parnell was riding?”
“No sir, I had it in mind to kill the bank robber, only I missed and hit his horse.”
“So, your eyesight isn’t all that good, is it? What I mean is, we are supposed to accept your story that you had Mr. Parnell in sight all along, but, with poor eyesight, you might have been wrong.”
“There ain’t nothin’ a-tall wrong with my eyesight,” Tanner replied, bristling at the question.
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
Thomas called two other witnesses who testified they had heard the shots and seen the men run from the bank. They also testified they had no doubt Parnell was one of the four. Thomas also said he could call a dozen more witnesses, but their testimony would be redundant as Parnell’s participation in the robbery had been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Gilman had no witnesses for the defense, deciding it would not serve Parnell well to testify.
“Summation, Mr. Gilman,” Judge Norton said.
“Gentlemen of the jury, what we have here is circumstantial. Mr. Bailey was the only witness to the actual murder and robbery, and in his own words, all the perpetrators were masked. He claimed to identify my defendant by the fact that he is wearing a blue shirt. But that could have been any one of three men in here, including a member of the jury and the sheriff. Since he cannot, with certainty, place my client in the bank at the time of the robbery, it is absolutely impossible for him to say that Parnell is the one who shot the three customers. Remember, in our system of government, you have to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that someone is guilty, before you find for the prosecution.”
