“Boucher Accused Of Manslaughter,” Montreal Star. November 9, 1932. Page 22.
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Admits Setting Deer-Trap Which Caused Death of Hunter
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SHERBROOKE, Que. - Nov. 9— (Star Special)— Robert O. Boucher, 47, residing in Dudswell Township is in the Sherbrooke Jail facing a charge of manslaughter. A coroner’s jury yesterday afternoon investigating the death of Orson F. Jenkerson, held Boucher criminally responsible and the accused was transferred to Sherbrooke where he will face preliminary hearing.
Jenkerson received fatal injuries when he walked into a deer trap that had been set by Boucher in the woods about three miles from Bishop's Crossing. Boucher admitted setting the snare, a crude but ingenious device to trap deer.
The gun was loaded with buckshot. The pellets struck Jenkerson in the left left, tore through the flesh, and lodged in his right leg. Ha was removed in the Sherbrooke hospital where he died yesterday morning.
Before the inquest opened, Coroner Bachand, Detective Ernest Dion and other officers inspected the scene of the fatality. The scenes they witnessed corroborated the evidence which Dr. Robert Elliott of Bishops’ Crossing later gave the jury relative to the statements which Jenkerson had made prior to his death. According to Dr. Elliott, the victim had told him that he was walking down the trail when ha suddenly heard the sound of a shot. At the same time, he felt a bullet strike him. His first impression, Jenkerson said, was that his own gun had been discharged. He discovered the hidden gun and using the two weapons as crutches he dragged himself a hundred yards before collapsing.
Ivan Jenkerson, 26, son of the deceased, informed the coroner’s jury that his father seldom went hunting. His prolonged absence on Sunday afternoon caused the witness to look for him.
Boucher declared that he had gone to Inspect the trap later in the afternoon and had noticed that something was wrong. He proceeded to the home of a neighbor, Alfred Betts, from whom he had borrowed the bullets and learned of the accident. He went directly to the Jenkerson home and told of setting the trap. Answering the question of a juror, Boucher stated that on the eve of the day he had set the trap, he had seen three deer.
