San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-06-15
MURDER IN FIRST DEGREE.
Espitla Found Guilty and Sentenced
to NinetY-nlne Years.

days, was concluded at o'clock
last night. This case was the chief
topic of conversation since Monday
and the court house was constantly
packed with eager and interested
spectators, daily awaiting to hear
the result.
Yesterday the defendant was
placed upon the stand, the court
room was crowded to suffOcation.
After he gave a statement of his
whereabouts at the time of the
murder, District Attorney Camp
took up conversation with the
defendant. Espitia was soon caught
in trap and "got his dates mixed"
The witness was rather nervous
when the district attorney got
hold of him and looked glad to get
away.
That ended the testimony and
Assistant District Attorney Camp
opened the argument for the state.
He made a special point of the fact
that the little girl had said her
mother was killed with a Ratchet
before anybody had found the
weapon which proved to have been
used. He was followed by Attor-
ney Cobb for the defense and then
the court adjourned until after
! noon.
In the afternoon the defendants
mother and sisters and brother sat
beside him, as they did during
most of the trial.
Mack Anderson began for the
defense at o'clock and made a
long speech lasting until 5 :05. He
asked for no sympathy from the
jury, but simply demanded JUS
tice. He denounced the crime as the
| blacklist ever com mitted in BeXar
county or in Texas. He then took
up the little girls evidence and
| sought to show that it was con-
Trajectory. and not reliable and
| that her second statement that the
defendant did not kill her mother
was the most probable.
| He said that the woman, Moya,
saw man at the window, who
| stayed until II o'clock and quar-
relied with Annita. He could not
have been Espitia for he was shown
| to have been elsewhere. No body,
not even the girl said that Espitia
was there, he asserted.
Mack Anderson went all through
| the testimony, and when he was
done District Attorney Camp took
the floor, great many people en-
tering the room especially to hear
him speak.
He said that he had usually
been on the side of mercy in his
practice, and since he had been
district attorney he had been
| disposed to reach out in behalf of
that side.
He agreed with the other speak
ers that the man who did the deed
should hang, and praised Mack An
dersOn's speech as one of the finest
efforts he ever heard. He sympa-
thized with that gentleman in his
infirmity Mack Anderson uses
crutches) but said that he
had heard that on a some
what similar occasion the old
gentleman had bought himself two
crutches and gone into court, but
getting interested, threw away first
one and then the other and might
have been taken for l6-year-old
boy. This created laughter.
The district attorney spoke I'M
til 7 o'clock and made a powerful
argument. Judge Noonan finished
his charge to the jury at 7:1O, and
after being out until few minutes
before s, the jury returned a ver-
dict of guilty OF murder in the first
degree, and fixed the penalty at
ninety-nine years in the state pris-
on. Quite crowd had gathered to
hear the sentence, and the scene
was impressive. Some people
had expected acquittal and some a
twenty-five year sentence, while
the majority thought the sentence
would be for life, or death sem
ltence. , r., Ir..
When the verdict was read, the
defendant, surrounded by his rela-
tives, looked wild for a moment,
then leaned back in his chair and
spent some time in weeping. After
which hand cuffs were placed on
him and he was taken to Jail.
1t was thought that his attor-
neys would appeal the case, but as
vet no notice to that effect has
been given.