The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-03 00:00:00

A SAD AFFAIR.

At Carat Ebenezer Lewis has been charged with the
wilful murder of William Roes at Swawea ou the 11th of
May, 1672.
-

The facts of this case were very simple. The
prisoner, the deceased, and his brother, Jonathan ,
Rees. met at a publichousein Swansea on the night I
of May 10 last. In the course of the evening the I
deceased swig an Irish song. and when he had finished I
the prisoner appears to have had some words about it I
with a fourth person who was present, but there was 1 '
no evidence of any quarrel with the other two
until after they had left the house. This they did at
about twelve o'clock, the prisoner accompanying them;
and for some time the three proceeded amicably to.
in the direction of their hymes, which were in
adjoining streets. When, however, they reached the I
street in which the deceased and his brother lived the I
prisoner left them, and instead of turning into it with
them went on in the direction in which they had all
been walking. After the brothers hail gone a little
diets:nee down, the street the prisoner returned and
called out to them from the top of the street, challeng-
ing them to fight him. The deceased then went back
to him, the brother following more slowly, and
when the latter reached the spot from which he
' had heard the prisoner calling, lie found him with
his hand raised in the act of striking the deceased.
To prevent the blow he pushed the prisoner aside,
and he fell into the gutter, but at that moment two
Militiamen came up, and the prisoner rose, saying "It
is time to go when there are more than two," and
walked away in the direction of his own house. As
soon as he reached the bottom of the street he turned
round again, challenged the brothers to fight, and
shouted out to them to "Come on" several
times, and then ran away. They both started in
pursuit, but when they had run a few yards the
deceased stopped, and the other continued following
the prisoner alone. The latter, however, got to his
house first and ran in and shut the iloor, and Rees,
seeing that he had escaped, hit the door a Vow
with his fist and walked on past it. Almost
immediately after the prisoner came out of his house
again, accompanied by his sister, and went up the
street to meet the deceased and the Militiamen, who
were cnning down on the opposite side. The prisoner's
sister went up to the deceased and tusked him what he
wanted, to which be replied, pointing to the prisoner,
"1 want him," and crossed the road towards him.
The prisoner, when he saw bins coming, retreated
under an arehway 'riving out of the streetiuto a lane,
and there waited for him. It was too dark under the
archway ts SCH ex idly wlpit happened, but there was a
acid& for about ball a minute, and then the deceased
cans, isit exclaiming that he was Ktal ARA, stsg.iere I
forward& few paces, and then fell on his face on the
pavemeet. His brother seeing him fall, went up to
the pi isoner and asked him what be had been doing,
bit be male-no answer, but itieitierl down rapidly awl
stabbed him in the leg. fie fell down, and ealled out
that he aleo was etatild, and his cries summoned at
wilt:el:min, who was oil his beat is little way off. The
pi ironer then went hito his house and shut the door,
bat the policeman having ascertained what had oc-
curred, followed him and took him into custody. The
brothers were carried to their own house, and a stir
goon was sent for, who attended to their wounds, but
that of William Rees %vas fataL He gradually sank,
and died in a few days.
The counsel for the defence contended that there
wa evidence of great provocation on the part of the
• deceased and his brother, and that this was sufficient to
reduce the crime to manslaughter. The jury appear to
have adopted this view, for after an absence of about
, twenty minntes they returued a verdict of Guilty of
; the minor offence.
- -

The prisoner was sentenced to twenty years' penal
servitude.