The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-03-23
DISTRICT COURT
Griffin Gets Two Years and
Six Months.
THE GAMBLING CASES.
William March of the Diamond Saloon.
This City. Convicted of Conducting a
Gambling House Upstairs-The Twelves
Embezzlement Case Dismissed.

When the First District court opened
this morning, James Griffin, who was
convicted yesterday of having burglar
lied the IL. q. w, deput at Eureka one
tence. The judge lectured him and in
the course OF the lecture remarked
that he was in doubt as to what was
best to do in Case OF this kind. 1t
appeared that the prisoner had spent
the bigger half of his life behind prison
bars, and that zach time he had been
liberated he had Immediately COM
mitted some offense, the punishment
for which Was another term in prison.
Il seemed that punishment by i'm
prIsonment, then, had little or no
effect upon him. The judge said it
seemed to him that Griffin's conduct
was the conduct of an insane person.
Griffin was sentenced to TWO years and
six months in the penitentiaTy,
1t is fact that Griffin was held for
while in the territorial insane asylum
here as an insane man, but it has since
developed that ne, merely as ruse to
procure his release from the peniten-
| tiary, feignea insanity, and that while
in the asylum he rapidly recovered
and in very short time he succeeded
in escaping from the institution.
THE GAMBLING CASES.
The case against VIM. March, whom
| the Indictment accuses of conducting
the game OF faro and other games of
chance, began last evening, was con-
tinued. The date alleged in the in
dictment upon which Mr. March was
guilty of the Otfense was January 18th
last, and the place, the room upstairs
over the Diamond saloon of this city,
conducted by Sims Duggins,
City Attorney Wnitecotton was the
| first and most important witness. He
| went up the back circular stairway, in
company with "a FRIEND" who
pressed the butt IN" Inside Mr..
Whitecotton saw what he took for a
game of poker in progress. The game
was described by the attorney in a
vivid and lively manner and with
such a free and easy use of terms, such
as ''ante," 1.-THE buck" "bet,"
stack" ETC., as evidenced the fact
! that Mr.. WhltecOtton is very familiar
with gambling slang. He knows
poker" all right and while up there he
saw faro layout and other tables
used in playing games of chance. Mr..
| Whiteeotton was let out of door, not
the one through which he entered. He
went out of a door on the east side of
the room into hallway that led into
the Excelsior block, the main hallway
of which block opens out upon Centre
street.
Justice Booth was called, but evi
dence from the records OF his court rel
alive to the arrest and conviction of
Mr.. March in that court Of the same
otfensa was not allnWed1to gSs;l.
| Thomas Osborne was the next wit
ness. He had bean up in the rooms
often. He never plays poker himself,
nor faro. He had seen solo" played
there, a game in which the player who
first Loses his stack of chips paws for
The drinks. Defendant March had
played at this game. He described the
inlet and outlet to the building, the
tables, appliances, etc., in the room.
Thomas Martin testified to renting
rooms and upstairs in his building,
which adjoins the Duggins building, to
Mr.. March. A hallway was afterwards
built by Mr.. March through room and
| Ellu way CuG Gu6 WILL Ill
to the DIggins building.
Henry Harrison had been up in the
upstairs rooms over the Duggins sa-
loon perhaps half a dozen times in the
last three months. Had seen March
there. March had let witness in sew
eral times. Had seen the boys play
what he supposed to be poker there.
| Newell Knight testified that in De-
cember last he Swore to a complaint
accusing the defendant of conducting g
gambling house and arresting him
thereafter. That March appeared be-
fore E. A. Wedgwood who was then
city justice OF Provo. and pleaded
guilty.
No evidence tor the defense was Of
fered but counsel for the defense inter-
posed many objections during the
course of the trial and at the close
asked that certain Of the testimony,
the major portion of it, be stricken out
on the ground that the witnesses in
giving the testimony had failed 10 con-
meet March with the games they saw
played in those rooms, while they saw
him in there. None but Whitecotton
had testified to seeing him actually en-
gagged in playing. The objections were
overruled and exceptions allowed.
Prosecuting Attorney Richards made
a short talk to the jury, the defense
made no arguments.
The case was given to the jury just
bsfore the noon recess. At $3.50 O'Clock
p N. they returned with verdict of
guilty. Time of passing sentence was
fixed for Friday morning next.
VIM. TWELYEs ACQUITTED,