LORNE
HELMER GIVEN 18 MONTHS
Guilty of
Manslaughter
Send to Reformatory
For killing North Walsingham
farmer James A. Learn, after the verdict of the jury, "Guilty
of manslaughter," the sentence meted out to 20-year old Lorne
Helmer last Thursday by Mr. Justice Kelly was 18 months in the
reformatory.
In passing sentence His
Lordship said that while personally inclined to let the prisoner go,
his duty and the necessity of protecting the public by punishment of
serious crime prevented this course.
He took into consideration
the prisoner's past record and family history, both favorable, his
voluntary military service, his having assumed the full
responsibilities of manhood and his three months' previous
confinement, and he expressed the opinion that good conduct would
shorten the term.
In the fact of recent
happenings, Justice Kelly said he felt that the discharge of Helmer
would be unwise. Since
20 Sep 1920 until the beginning of his week, west and north of
Toronto, not less than 17 murder cases have come to trial or will
come up for trial -- "an awful record for any section of the
province."
Learn's son, who lives in
Napoleon, Ohio, did not come over for the trial. There was no estate
to look after. It developed during the trial that Learn was
considerably in debt to the elder Mrs. Helmer and that the year's
crop was not sufficient to liquidate this.
The prisoner's young wife
was not in the courtroom when her husband received sentence, nor was
his mother or any of the other relatives. When seen by his mother
shortly after sentence was pronounced, he told her that he did not
feel guilty.
