Brooklyn – Concerning a popular Brooklyn girl, Miss Louise Reynolds, who graduates at West Chester State Normal School this spring, the West Chester Star says: “A feature that was unequalled in the work was the Indian club drill by 32 young men and young women of the senior class. Undoubtedly in this class Miss Louise Reynolds was the most perfect, she being considered the best young woman exponent of club swinging in the school.”

Parkville, Dimock Twp. – Mr. and Mrs. George Rose visited their parents, near Parkville, Sunday, March 1st, and started home about 5 o’clock in the afternoon and got caught in that awful blizzard. They said the wind blew about 40 miles an hour, and I guess Mrs. Rose thought the wind would turn the cutter over. Also a wood bee was made for widow Julia VanCamp on Wednesday. Also several hundred new books have been added to the Dimock free library, recently, which are interesting.

Lynn, Springville Twp. – Blacksmiths are not getting very much sharpening to do this winter, on account of the heavy snow, so some of them are shoveling snow on the roads instead.

St. Joseph – The people here and distant friends were shocked when the Angel of Death suddenly claimed one of its oldest and most highly respected citizens, Thomas Reilly. Death occurred at his home Feb. 23, 1914. Mr. Reilly was born in Ireland over 80 years ago. He had lived for the past 37 years in St. Joseph. He was a successful farmer, quiet in his ways, pleasant to everyone, a generous neighbor, a true friend. Mr. Reilly is survived by four children, Thomas F., of East Orange, N. J., Miss Ellie, John and Bernard, of St. Joseph, and one sister, Miss Sarah Reilly, of Binghamton, N. Y.

Susquehanna – The wind on Sunday night blew the slate roof off the barn of Fred Dutcher. A large number of shade trees were also blown down. Also the Susquehanna river is filled with the heaviest body of ice in several years and it is possible to drive for miles on the ice where there [is] a road broken.

Lenoxville – The Missing Link Dramatic Society enjoyed a sleigh ride to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Will Ransom, last Thursday night. All voted it a very pleasant time.

Hop Bottom – The severity of the storm in this section could be more fully realized when we learned that W. A. Jeffers, who came to the station here Sunday evening to meet a party of relatives, was lost in the storm on the way home and the entire company had to seek shelter for the night in the cottage at Jeffers’ Lake.

Rush – The donation at Rush M. E. church, last Thursday, was an enjoyable occasion. Besides many good things for the parsonage, the pastor and wife were presented with a purse of $15 and a beautiful handmade counterpane. Also No school at Rushboro Monday, but Tuesday the teacher, Miss Hazel LaRue, took up duties as did the scholars. Her sister, Martha, couldn’t get to her school at Fowler Hill so she spent a couple days visiting her cousin, Blanche Gray, at East Rush.

Transue, Auburn Twp. – There was no school last week, the snow drifts being so bad the teacher was unable to get here.

Alford – H. L. Hubbard says that pressing demands were made upon the popular boarding house, which he and his wife conducts, during the blizzard period, but all were taken good care of.

Tunkhannock - Hotelmen here are complaining bitterly of the result of the seven weeks evangelistic campaign. Remonstrances have been filed against every hotel in town and many more throughout the county and to add to their discomfort the town dispensers of intoxicants report bar receipts so low it is impossible to make both ends meet. A “dry” county is predicted by many in touch with public sentiment.

Glenwood, Lenox Twp. – Bert Cameron is gaining very slowly from his illness, but is still confined to the bed. Friends and neighbors extended a helping hand to Mrs. Sara Cameron and family, March 9th, which was greatly appreciated. A nice pile of wood was sawed, split and hauled to the door. Also several in this vicinity have had their telephones removed—rent was getting most too high. Also in Lenoxville, school has re-opened after a three weeks’ vacation. Miss Sherman, being obliged to resign to care for her mother, who fell on the ice and broke her leg. Miss Marjorie Harding has been hired to substitute.

Choconut Valley – The blizzard did not miss the Valley. Snow drifts were from eight to ten feel in depth where it seldom drifts. All travel was stopped. The mail could not get through for several days, but now the stage makes its regular trips and the R. D. carrier gets through on his routes and the roads are getting all right again. Several who were out for short visits were caught by the storm and could not return for several days.

Forest City – Fifteen boys, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years, were put in the borough lockup Saturday night for snow balling people as they passed along Main street. They were discharged after their parents paid $2 apiece to get them out. This ought to be a lesson to the boys who make a practice of snowballing.

Harford – The Central House, which for some years was under the management of E. W. Miller, has been sold to Mr. and Mrs. Russell Andrews, who have taken possession. Also the grocery store formerly kept by U. B. Lott has been sold to the Harford Supply Co., and is being remodeled. The store will be under the management of F. O. Miller and N. C. Adams.

News Briefs: The heating of the new high school in Rupert, Idaho, by electricity, is the first case on record where large buildings have been heated entirely by such means, announces the Federal Bureau of Education. The school has come to be known as “The Electric High School.” Also twenty women were suffering from injuries Tuesday, clothes being torn, ribs cracked and hats battered, when a mob of 5,000 stormed the already clogged Carnegie Hall in New York, in a vain attempt to hear the Reverend W. A. [Billy] Sunday, baseball evangelist, “lay out the devil.” Police reserves from the stations fought through the singing, shouting crowd, and with difficulty cleared the way to the doors. Women were aided to their feet and all urged to go home.

In 1998 in Splendora, Texas, Robert Middleton was doused with gasoline and set on fire – it was his 8th birthday.  At that time, the suspect was Don Collins, a 13-year old juvenile male.  Middleton suffered severe burns over 99 percent of his body which required extensive physical therapy – and he eventually died in 2011 from skin cancer which doctors determined was caused by the severe burns.

In 1998, the 13-year old Don Collins was charged as a juvenile offender, but the prosecution later withdrew the charges after prosecutors determined that they lacked sufficient evidence to pursue the case.  Prior to his death, the victim provided a videotaped statement that disclosed for the first time that Collins had sexually assaulted him prior to the incident where he doused him with gasoline and set him on fire.  Prosecutors re-opened the case based upon the new sexual assault allegations – and they were able to connect some additional dots. 

During the intervening years, Collins had been convicted in a separate case of molesting another 8-year old boy, and he had threaten to set that boy on fire if he told anyone what had happened.  With the additional evidence, the prosecution reinitiated charges, including a new charge of criminal homicide for the death of Robert Middleton.  Because the initial criminal acts occurred when Collins was a juvenile offender, the charges started in a juvenile court, but a Texas judge has just ruled that Collins would be tried as an adult for these offenses.

A few people were asking me about the procedural nature of this case.  First, there was a question regarding double jeopardy, i.e., Collins had already been charged with this offense as a juvenile offender.  There are certain triggers that are necessary for jeopardy to “attach,” and if those triggers never occur, then double jeopardy has no applicability.  Generally speaking, double jeopardy deals with situations where a person has already been tried and the jury (or the judge) has made a factual determination of guilt or innocence.  Because Collins’ juvenile charges were withdrawn by the prosecution and there was never any trial and verdict, jeopardy never attached for purposes of the constitutional double jeopardy.

The other question dealt with the homicide question as the victim did not die until 13 years after the initial assault and severe injuries.  Under the old common law rule, adopted from England, the law measured the time between the initial assault and the ultimate death – if more than a year and one day had passed, then it was presumed that the initial assault was not the cause of death.  In other words, if a victim survived for at least a year and one day, there was a presumption that it was not a homicide.  If the common law rule applied in today’s world, Collins could not be charged with homicide because Middleton survived for more than one year and a day.

Pennsylvania courts never adopted this common law rule.  In rejecting this old common law rule in 1960, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court provided the following analysis: “A rule becomes dry when its supporting reason evaporates.  There is no more reason for a rule of a year and a day than there is for one of a hundred days or a thousand and one nights.  The rule is the arbitrary span of time which was fixed by the common law and this was because of the limited medical knowledge of the times.”

In rejecting the common law rule, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court noted that the question is an evidentiary one of causation and the level of medical proof that can connect the initial assault with the ultimate death of the victim.  In 1960, there was no statutory provision relating to homicide – it was a common law offense defined by case law.  Thereafter, the legislature enacted the Crimes Code – which included very specific definitions of homicide – and definitions of causation.

Thus, even where there is a substantial lapse of time between the initial assault and the victim’s death, the offender can be charged with homicide provided there is sufficient proof to demonstrate that the initial assault caused the later death.  And what does the law require as proof for such causation?  First, the law requires proof that death would not have occurred “but for” the initial assault.  Second, for intentional crimes, the law requires that death had to be similar to the injury contemplated by the actor when he engaged in the initial assault.

If we take these rules back to the Texas case, it is fair to say that the nature of Collins’ assault resulted in serious and life-threatening injuries that had to be fairly contemplated by Collins when he doused Middleton with gasoline and set him on fire – and the medical evidence will undoubtedly show that “but for” the initial assault and the severe burning, Middleton would not have died of skin cancer in his early 20s.  I do not think the prosecutors will have much problem convincing a jury that Collins caused Middleton’s death – even though 13 years elapsed between the initial assault and Middleton’s death.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.