The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-06 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—GLOUCESTER, APRIL 5.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Russell Gurney, Q.C.)
THE QUEEN V. CASTRO.
Juan Antonio Castro, a Spaniard, was charged with
the wilful murder of Cornelius Murphy, on the 25th of
February last, at Bristol.
Mr. Skinner and Mr. Matthews appeared for the
prosecution ; Mr. Powell defended the prisoner.
The prisoner was by birth a Spaniard, and when yes-
terday called upon to plead, he was asked whether he
would be tried by a jury of Englishmen, or by a jury of
half Englishmen and half foreigners. He said he was
indifferent. He was accordingly tried by a jury of
Englishmen. The present inquiry arose out of the death
of an Irishman named Cornelius Murphy, who died on
the 25th of February last, in consequence of a stab in-
flicted by a knife in his hack on the previous night, at
about 11 o'clock. It appeared in evidence that, on the
Saturday night in question, a number of Spaniards, of
whom the prisoner was one, were at a public-house in
Princes-street, Bristol, called the Hole in the Wall. In
the same house there was also a number of " Highlan-
ders," viz., sailors belonging to the bark Highlander.
The two parties were using bad language and quarrel-
ling, which caused the landlord to put the Spaniards in
one room, and to request the others to leave the house.
A man named Muir, a sailor, was at the Hole in the Wall,
and he said a man, whe he believed was the prisoner,
struck him and knocked him down, without any provoca-
tion. Muir then went in to fetch his shipmates, who were
at the time in the house. They rushed down stairs, and
were met at the door by the Spaniards, who assembled
in large numbers. A row then ensued, in which a man
named Robert Hoskins was stabbed. There was fighting
at the time in the street, and Muir, seeing Hoskins fall,
went to his assistance. He was on the pavement, and
saw a man whom he believed to be the prisoner coming
up to him with a knife in his hand. Muir endeavoured
to avoid the party, and got off the pavement for that
purpose. The man, according to Muir's statement, then
ran along the pavement, and stabbed in the back a man
who was standing on the pavement, and who had taken
no part in the row. This witness then returned for ten
minutes to the public house, where Hoskins was. The
man so stabbed was Cornelius Murphy, an Irishman, who
died next day of the wound'. This witness stated that he
saw the man who inflicted the wound on Murphy run in
the direction of Queen's-square, where the next day a
bloody knife was found stuck in a shutter. The blade
was about five inches in length with a dagger pointfirmly
fixed in its handle. A young woman named Jane Blake-
man said she was standing outside the Hole-in-the-Wall
on the night in question, and saw the prisoner, whom
she had seen nearly every evening, run across the street
and stick a knife into the Irishman's back. She saw him
run along the pavement on which the deceased was stand-
ing, and then across the street towards Queen's-square.
Mr. Powell, for the prisoner, contended that the evi-
dence of Janeßlakeman, the only witness who spoke po-
sitively to the prisoner's identity, was not sufficient to
warrant the jury in coming to the conclusion that he was
the man who inflicted the wound on the deceased. At all
events, considering the fight which had taken place the
offence would not be more than manslaughter.
Mr. R. Gurney, in summing up the case to the jury, said
he thought the jury would hardly come to the conclusion,
under the circumstances, that the prisoner had been guilty
of murder. There was not only the fight, but, as a fo-
reigner, the prisoner might reasonably suppose he was
in greater danger than was, in fact, the case.
The jury found the prisoner guilty of manslaughter.
Sentence deferred.