Editing 22 May 1914 - Seattle Star (Seattle, Washington)

<b><center>Volume 16, No 76</center></b>

<b><i>Page 1, Column 6</b></i>

<center><b>MRS. WERNER NOT GUILTY OF SLAYING HUSBAND</b></center>

[[Mary Magdalena Goebel|Magdalina Werner]], 26, tried for complicity in the murder of her 52-year-old husband, Henry Werner, an Issaquah rancher, on March 2, last, is a free woman today.  After two hours and 45 minutes of consideration last night, the jury returned before Judge Kenneth Mackintoch with a verdict of not guilty.  Mrs. Werner showed the same stoical self-control during final hours of the ordeal as she has throughout the trial.

<b><center>She Breaks Down</center></b>

She broke down and sobbed with joy after the verdict was read and the six jurymen and six jurywomen filed solemnly out of the box and shook hands with her.  During the afternoon Mrs. Werner sat with her little baby girl, Agnes, asleep in her lap.  Anotehr little daughter, 2, sat stiffly upright, looking at the formal scene in childish wonderment.  Henry, her 8-year-old, whose testimony in his mother's behalf was unshaken, sat near her, with women relatives of the accused.

<b><center>Confession in Evidence</center></b>

Prosecutor Edgar J. Wright, in his argument, emphasized the fact that the state had placed before the jury a confession, signed by Mrs. Werner, in which she admitted a meeting with an Italian, Frank Piconi, now in jail, in regard to killing her husband.  In this alleged confession she told of seeing Piconi run from the scene of the crime and of finding her husband dead in the barn. Col. Howard Hathaway of Everett made an eloquent argument for the defense.  Attorneys C. K. Poe and George Rummens also pleaded before the jury, maintaining the innocence of the accused woman.

<b><center>Will Seek Employment</center></b>

Mrs. Werner will stay with her mother, Mrs. Hall, at 2617 W. 64th st., for a time at least.  She will look for employment in Seattle.  She wishes to collect her family of children and care for them.  Carl, one of the little boys, is with a friend at Clallam Bay; Henry is with H. T. Werner, brother of the murdered man; Martha is at the home of a sister, and Baby Agnes is at present at the juvenile detention home.

"Everybody was good to me last night, and we rode home in a taxi-cab," said Mrs. Werner, delightedly, today.  

<b>Prosecutor Murphy said that Frank Piconi, the Italian accused of the crime, will be placed on trial June 8, regardless of the Werner verdict, which state attorneys consider highly unsatisfactory.