BELIEVED MURDERER WANTED TO GIVE SELF UP—NONE TO TAKE HIM
Last Word of Leon Nash has Him Stopping at Carrington Farm House
Steele, N.D., Dec 18.—From the best information Sheriff T. A. Price, of Steele, is able to get, the unique situation seems to have developed of a murderer wanting to give himself up but nobody will take him.
The situations includes Loen {sp} Nash, 35, of Robinson, who shot and killed near Black Hill, then defied pursuit of a sheriff's posse by starting out on foot into a North Dakota blizzard in the general direction of the Canadian line.
Wanted to Give Himself Up
Sheriff Price sent word to Fargo yesterday that a man, answering Nash's description, was reported to have stopped at a farm house height miles southeast of Carrington two nights ago, asked for transportation to Carrington, telling the farmer that he was wanted for killing a man and desired to give himself up to the law.
The Carrington farmer refused to have anything to do with him, and that is the last word Sheriff Price has received of the possible whereabouts of Nash.
May be Headed This Way.
Sheriff Price believes now that Nash is headed for Fargo. The sheriff trailed the man for five days, but failed finally in tracking him when all trace of his progress was blotted out by a heavy fall of snow.
Cleon {sp} Nash, murderer of Clarence Hicks, is still at large, according to word given out this morning by State's Attorney Eastwold and Sheriff Price. Every possible effort is being made to locate the man who walked into the little Hicks cabin and cold bloodedly fired a shot from a .38 rifle into the heart of Nash.
Bismarck Tribune, 12/18/1916
Steele.—Half starved and with both feet and his face brozen, Leon Nash, wanted for shooting and killing Clarence Hicks in the latter's cabin, 14 miles northwest of Robinson, surrendered to sheriff A. T. Price of Steele. He had been traveling at night and sleeping in straw stacks during days, and had wandered as far east as Carrington.
Pembina Pioneer Express, 12/29/1916
STABBED MULE; KILLED DOG AND NASH OBJECTED
REACHING FOR GUN WHEN FATAL SHOT WAS FIRED
Alleged Murderer of Clarence Hicks Says Victim Had Been Bad Neighbor
Steele, N.D., July 13.—Cool and collected, calmly sticking to his story under a heavy fire of cross examination, Leon Nash, on trial for the murder of Clarence Hicks, this morning testified that when he went to Hicks' homestead shack to protest with the latter for stabbing his (Nash's) mule and killing his dog, Hicks reached for his gun, and that then, fearing for his own life, Nash fired the fatal shot.
Hicks, Nash testified, had generally been a bad neighbor, visiting repeated annoyances upon the accused. He could not be swerved from his testimony on direct examination to the effect that he did not go to Hick's cabin with the intention of killing him, and that he did not fire until he believed his own life in danger.
Closing arguments were begun just before noon. State's Attorney Eastwold for the prosecution reiterated his stand that evidence plainly convicted Nash of a deliberate, cold-blooded murder, and that the maximum penalty should be exacted. Attorney Allen, for the defense, argued that the theory of justifiable homicide had been clearly established. It is probably that Judge Nuessle will finish summing up late this afternoon and that the jury will get the case before court adjourns this evening.
A dramatic incident of the trial yesterday was 17-year-old Jacob Brantner's story o fhow {sp} Hicks pleaded pitifully for his life when he opened the door and saw Nash standing there with a 38-40 rifle in his hands. Brantner was employed by Hicks at the time of the killing last December, claimed to have witnessed the shooting, and proved to be the state's best witness.
Bismarck Tribune, 7/13/1917
