Phoebe Judge

But he said, in lots of people's minds, I'm a villain.

The county sheriff said he wasn't planning to file charges because he said he, quote,

The sheriff said the death was accidental.

He said the dynamite itself wasn't powerful enough to kill someone, and that Robert Joel McKenzie had died because a piece of the machine had come off and cut his leg, and he bled to death.

David Rainwater represented Robert Joel McKenzie's mother.

A.C.

Wade estimated there had been, quote, four or five dollars in the machine.

David Rainwater thought Robert Joel McKenzie's mother had a good case.

E.C.

Wade was found liable.

The judge wrote,

He had an abandoned and malignant heart.

He set a death trap with dynamite, never testing it to determine how many innocent persons might be killed if within 100 to 200 yards of it, and thus sought to protect his several dollars in the vending machine.

He had a conscious indifference to consequences.

A.C.

Wade was ordered to pay a small settlement to Robert Joel McKenzie's mother.

How did people react in town to the events and the decision?

So they weren't showing outward sympathy for what had happened to this 16-year-old?

David says that people in town thought of Robert Joel McKenzie as a thief.

We'll be right back.