100 years ago in Spokane: The Fort Wright soldier thrown from a third-floor railing succumbed to his injuries, so the suspect’s charge was upgraded to murder

Maurice Codd, 23 – former Gonzaga University student leader and current Northwestern University medical student – was jailed for the murder of Frank P. Brinton, a Fort Wright soldier.

The arrest came shortly after news arrived that Brinton had succumbed to his injuries at the base hospital. He had been clinging to life for more than a week.

Codd was accused of tossing Brinton over a third-story railing during a confrontation at the Granite Building. Police said that Codd, slightly under the influence of liquor, showed up at the hotel on that fateful night “in an ugly frame of mind,” for unspecified reasons.

Codd began cursing at the landlady. Brinton, “in a friendly way,” attempted to get Codd to leave the hotel.

But Codd became increasingly belligerent and at one point, threatened to throw the soldier over the railing.

Someone called police and an officer was just heading up the stairs when he witnessed Codd follow through on his threat and saw Brinton plummet to the ground.

Codd was arrested for assault but released on bond. Then he was reported to have gone to a private sanitarium, “suffering from a nervous breakdown.”

After he was re-arrested for murder, Codd appeared in court “with head drooped.” An observer said he appeared to have lost 20 pounds since first arrested.

Codd came from a pioneer Inland Northwest family and had been the Gonzaga student body president in his senior year. He had been called home from his studies at Northwestern University a few months earlier because his mother was seriously ill.

Brinton, said Fort Wright officers, “was a fine boy” and good soldier. Feelings among his fellow soldiers were “running high.”