Girl, 14, Killed by Pistol Shot
DOROTHY JONES, DAUGHTER OF LOCAL CREDIT PRODUCTION ASSOCIATION HEAD, MEETS INSTANT DEATH, MONDAY.
At the request of State Attorney E. Dixie Beggs, Sheriff M. H. Prescott arrested Jeff Davis, Tuesday afternoon, on a first degree murder charge in connection with the death of Miss Dorothy Jones, 14 years old, at the DeFuniak hotel, Monday afternoon, and ordered him held without bail to await the finding of the coroner’s jury, [which is] expected to meet at nine o’clock on Friday morning, to look further into the facts in connection with the death of Miss Jones.
Dorothy Jones, 14 years of age, daughter of Robert Jones, at the head of the Credit Production Association office in DeFuniak Springs, was shot and killed shortly after four o’clock Monday afternoon, while seated in a porch swing at the DeFuniak hotel on West Baldwin avenue, with Jeff Davis, 17, son of Jefferson Davis, veteran mail carrier of the DeFuniak [post] office.
Miss Jones was shot through the left breast, from the left side, the ball passing, apparently through the heart, and making its exit under the shoulder blade on the opposite side. The girl’s death was not instantaneous, though practically so, the witnesses at the coroner’s jury, held the following morning, testifying that the girl screamed several times following the discharge of the revolver, a .38 Smith & Wesson, young Davis himself telling the coroner’s jury that she exclaimed, “Jeff, I’m shot!”
The body was prepared for burial here, and taken Tuesday morning to Pensacola, where she had been making her home with her grandmother, Mrs. Anna Belford, the girl’s parents having been divorced. The girl, rather attractive in appearance, had been visiting with her father here for some time, and had planned to return to Pensacola the following day, preparatory to entering the public schools here, where she was a pupil.
There were no eyewitnesses to the actual shooting, but there were a number of persons near by, some of whom reached the scene within a few seconds after the shot was fired.
According to the story which young Davis told following the shot which took the girl’s life, she and he were sitting on the porch swing, and were both playing with the revolver, which later cost her life. Davis, so he said at the time, and later volunteered the same story to the coroner’s just, had unloaded the revolver, and later, put three of the four shells back into the gun, the girl saying that she wished to keep one as a souvenir. From this point his testimony was somewhat vague, his only knowledge, according to the statement which he made to the coroner’s jury being that the gun was fired while in the girl’s hands, that she screamed that she had been shot, and that her body slumped over against his.
A coroner’s jury, consisting of J. S. Gaston, Charles Cawthon, H. L. Prescott, Riley Robinson, R. W. Storrs and L. E. Gill, assembled by Sheriff Prescott, met in the council room at the city hall, County Judge Brannon’s quarters at the court house being insufficient in size to care for the number who attended the inquest.
Several witnesses were heard by this body, but whose testimony was of no particular moment, since none were eyewitnesses. Mrs. J. A. Vaughan, who was in the lobby when the shot was fired, testified to seeing the revolver lying in the swing. Miss Lillian Miles, in the office of the Miles Lumber Company, testified as to having noticed the couple sitting on the porch, the girl in the end of the swing next to the street, and of hearing the shot. J. H. Myers, who was in his room at the hotel at the time, heard the shot, and heard the girl scream several times, ending with “Oh, I’m shot!”
The testimony of several others was heard, including that of Dr. E. L. Huggins, who told of the nature of the wound which caused the girl’s death, and the course which the ball took. At the conclusion of his testimony, the jury adjourned to meet at 1:30, when other witnesses would be summoned.
At the afternoon session, Mrs. Corbin Cawthon testified that she reached the scene of the catastrophe within a short time after the shot was fired, that the girl was already dead, and that Jeff told her of unloading, and later reloading the revolver, and that it was in the girl’s hands when the fatal shot was fired. Tom Sharpe, as well as others, testified that following the removal of the girl’s body, the gun was lying about the center of the swing, between where the two were sitting at the time.
James Neal, an employee of the ice plant, heard at the afternoon session of the coroner’s jury, testified that he was the first man to reach the porch, following the shooting, and that Jeff told him that he (Jeff) had shot the girl. Two daughters of R. L. Sellars, Rachael and Margaret, were also heard by the jury, one of whom testified that Dorothy had confided to her that she and Jeff had had a misunderstanding, but that the matter had been patched up.
At the conclusion of the testimony the room in which the jury sat was cleared of spectators that the body might consider its verdict there; but instead of rendering a finding, several additional witnesses were called, and having heard this additional testimony, the jury adjourned to reconvene again at 9:00 Friday morning for the purpose of further considering the matter.