Arizona republican., 1894-12-12
HALF DONE.
The Crouch Case Pro-
Gee ding Rapidly.
The Territory's Testi :
mony All In.
How the Witnesses Say Alum
diO Leon Died.
1t Is Probable That All the Evidence
viii Be Submitted at To-
days Session.

The Crouch murder trial was gotten
well under way yesterday. Itproceeded
so rapidly that the evidence for the terri
tory was concluded and one witness for
the defense was heard.
The trial is attracting less attention
than the Price trial. The defendant in
the present case is much more promin-
ent figure but the offense is lacking in
the peculiarly revolving features that
belonged to Prices crime.
Crouch is charged with having on
August % murdered Abundio Leon at a
camp six miles southwest of Phoenix.
The killing which took place within
view of a dozen witnesses, among whom
were the dead mans wife and brother,
was the outcome OF dispute concern.
ing the ccupation OF parcel of school
land.
The defendant was surrounded in
court yesterday by his wife and chill
dren and seemed to be in full realiza-
tion of the seriousness of the situation.
The first witness for the territory was
DR.. Mahoney whose testimony related
only to the character of the wound
which caused Leon's death. The next
was the wife of Leon who said that
early on the morning of the 2Sth a
wagon containing seven men was
driven up in front OF a shack or cabin
which her husband and brother were
building. Her husband was working
at the southwest corner and his brother
at the southeast c9rner. Crouch and
William Price ahghted from the wagon.
The former approached her husband
and ordered him off the place. Leon
replied that they would leave it to the
law. Crouch drew a revolver and her
husband passing northward through
the cabin emerged from the northeast
corner, closely followed by Crouch.
Leon went few feet in an easterly
direction and stopped, facing Crouch,
who all the time holding the revolver in
his hand, leveled it and fired. Leon
turned and walked fifty feet north, fell
and died. The witness ran and over
took him and held him in her arms as
he breathed his last. In the mean time
Price had approached Patricio Leon,
she said, and with revolver had driven
him away from where he was at work.
After the shooting Crouch and
Price got into the wagon and the
party drove off.
Patricio Leon and Carmelita Castro
testified in the main to the same set of
facts.
An American witness, and the
who saw the killing, was Vol
Gentry. He was at work at a ditch
250 feet east of the cabin when the
wagon containing the seven men,
Crouch, Price, Reggie Price, Sam
Gentry, Thomas Ladue and an
other whom he did not know
drove up in front of Icons cabin. The
approach OF Crouch and Price was as
Mrs. Leon had described it but after
Leon left the point where he was at
work, followed by Crouch. the witness
could not see them until they appeared
on the north side of the cabin. Leon
walked a short distance toward the
east. He was unarmed but Crouch had
something in his hand which the wit
ness thought was a revolver. The
witness saw the two men standing
facing each other. He turned away
for an instant to attend to mis- work.
In that instant the shot was fired.
The witness again looked in the direc
tion OF the two men. Crouch's arm
was still raised and the pistol was
smoking. Leon was unarmed and
walked away and fell.
On cross examination the witness
said that he could not see Leon below
the waist at the moment of the shoot
ing on account OF patch of
sun flowers, but the wounded man
took three or four steps and came
out into full view and he was
then unarmed. A question by the de-
tense concerning the cause OF the dis
pute and the claims of Leon and
Crouch to the land in contention was
objected to. The objection was sus-
| tanned.
The first witness for the defense was
VIM. Price, who had been bound over
with Crouch to the grand, jury for the
killing of Leon. The charge against
him was ignored.
Price described the journey from
Phoenix to the recently erected cabin of
Leon. There was no purpose of vio-
lence he said. They did not 60 down
there to eject the Mexicans but to draw
line through the land for the better
definition of the claims.