Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-09
On Trial for Killing His
Wife.
Proceedings Yesterday in the
Various Courts.
Judge Van Dyke Decides the First
Street Widening Case.
The Kaweah Colonists Sentenced-Do-
minguez Guilty of Assault-NOtes
of Cases Acted Upon Yes
terday.

The trial of Wong Ark. for the muir
der of his wife, Goot Cue, in house of
ill-fame in Chinatown, on the night of
April 9th, began before Judge Lucien
Shaw in department six of the superior
court yesterday. The case was called
in the forenoon and continued till
2p.m., when the impaneling of jury
was commenced. District Attorney Nc
Lachlan appeared in person for the
prosecution, assisted by Deputy Phibbs,
and Jesse Hardesty defended Wong Ark.
The regular term trial jurymen, thirty
in number, were in attendance, but at
the time of adjournment only ten men
had been accepted and special venire
was issued, returnable at 10 o'clock this
morning. District Attorney McLachlan
outlined the case before the selection of
jurymen was commenced, and then At
torney Hardesry put each talesman
through rigid examination as to
whether or not he had any prejudices
against the Chinese and whether he
would believe Mongolian as readily as
a white man. Most of the talesmen
said that they would give more weight
to the oath of white man, and this was
held by the court not to disqualify them.
About the only question asked by the
district attorney was as to whether the
talesman nhad. any prejudices against
capital punishment. The names of the
jarors accepted thus far are an follows
S. A. Ayers, G. A. Lawrence, J. 0.
Houser, j. o. Lamb, W. L. Cuthbert,
he Hor E1lt
Squire, Thomas Gilbert, Jr., and II. w.
Folsom.
The crime for which Wong Ark is on
trial is the murder of his wife or slave,
Goot Cue, Chinese prostitute. The
woman was shot in the breast with
45-caliber ball on the night of April
9th and died shortly after. There were
no witnesses to the shooting, but the
state has a very strong chain of circum-
stantial evidence. The couple had quar-
relied previous to the murder, and the
woman was taken away from Wong Ark
at her own request and sent to the
San Francisco mission. She returned,
however, and the murder occurred soon
after. When arrested Wong Ark had
on his person pistol about 1S inches
long and another and smaller revolver,
with which it is supposed he did the
shooting.
The taking OF testimony will begin
to-day as soon as two more jurors are
obtained.
A FAULTY ABSTRACT.
Judge Van Dyke yesterday, in depart
ment four, handed down three impor-
tant opinions in the cases of Smith vs..
the Kansas City Improvement company,
Latin VS.. Gillette ct al. and Dehail ct
al. VS.. the City of Los Angeles. The
suit of B. G. Latin against j. w. Gill
lette and +. W. Gibson was to recover
suffered by the plaintiff through faulty
abstract of title prepared by the firm of
Gillette & Gibson. At the request of
Jacob Birnbaum the title searchers pre-
pared an abstract and certificate of title
showing Birnbaum to be the sole owner
of the west 100 acres of the northwest
quarter OF section "a. township l south,
range IA west, San Bernardino meridian.
Birnbaum sold to the plaintiff on this
certificate of title, and the latter was
made the defendant in suit regarding
the ownership of the land in which he
lost one-half of it, it having been proved
that Birnbaum was really the owner of
only fifty acres. Suit was brought by
Latin against the abstractors, and the
latter demurred against his complaint.
The demurrer was sustained, and new
complaint filed. Another demurrer was
entered, and the decision of yesterday
sustains this without leave to amend.
The opinion affects only the form of the
complaint, not the merits of the suit it.
self.
DEFECTIVE ORDINANCE.
In the case of Dehail vs. the city,
Judge Van Dyke read an opinion re-
straining the city from selling the
plaintiffs property to pay damages,
costs and expenses for widening First
street. The opinion says that the case
is similar to that of Saunders VS.. the
city, and that the court sees no reason
for changing the ruling made in that
case. In the ordinance of intention no
exterior boundaries for the assessment
district were stated, as is provided for
by statute, and the proceedings under
the ordinance are therefore invalid.
SUSTAINED THE DEMURRER.
In the case of Smith ct al. vs. the
Kansas City improvement company ct
al, Judge Van Dyke sustained the de-
murrer to the complaint. The plead
ings stated that the defendants asso-
ciated themselves together into corpo-
ration for the purpose of buying and
selling land, etc. Several contracts were
entered into by them as corporation,
one of which was with plaintiff. The
latter now seeks to recover from each
for the full amount of the liability to
him of the corporation, which, the court
holds, is contrary to allegations made in
his own complaint. The demurrer was
therefore sustained, on the ground that
the defendants are liable only for the
amount of their holdings in the corpora
ton.
THE KAWEAH COLONY.
Yesterday was the day set in the
United States district court Rfor
the sentencing OF the trustees of
the Kaweah colony, Haskell, Taylor,
Martin, Christie and Hubbard. At the
request of the attorney for the four first
named Judge Ross fixed their fines at
1901, in order to allow them to sue out
writ of error and take an appeal, which
could not have been done had the fine
been less than $500. They were then
allowed ten days in which to file a bill of
exceptions. The remaining trustee,
Henry S. Hubbard, paid fine of $1OO.
The defendants were convicted of cutting
timber on government. land at the head