The San Francisco call., 1895-07-19
One of the Most Scathing Judg-
mentS Ever Rendered by
a JuriSt.
HILTON GETS EIGHT YEARS.
1t Is Believed Both Shareholders
Will Appeal to the Supreme
Court.

fenced Deacon Oldham of the Baptist
Church, who was the instigator of the
stage robbery committed by G. w. Hilton,
to twelve years in Folsom Hilton was
sentenced to eight years in San Quentin.
AT 10 o'clock the courtroom was crowded
to suffocation to hear the sentence pro-
| nounced in these cases.
When Judge McGarvey asked Oldham
If he had any legal reason to offer why
sentence should not be pronounced, his
| counsel, Seawell and Pemberton, made a
motion for new trial. Many points were
made in favor of the motion, which were
ably argued by Attorney Pemberton.
At the conclusion of Mr.. Pemberton's
| argument the Judge denied the motion for
| new trial. The court then addressed the
prisoner as follows:
am called on this morning to perform q
duty exceedingly unpleasant to me. AT no
time is it pleasant for court to pronounce
judgment of punishment upon his fellow-man
The surroundings of this case makes it doubly
disagreeable TO me. know your associations
here; know your wife; have known her all
her life; she has my sympathy.
You are charged with having aided, abetted
and assisted in the robbery charged in the in
formation. The man that it is admitted did
the robbery, at the time he committed the act
was living at your house with you. He was
your friend. Your wife was friend of his.
What could possibly have induced him to
charge you with this crime? II is the first case
on record have known OF or read of where a
man without any inducement whatever, has
come out and charged friend with completely
in crime of this kind. l think that Hilton
gave the secret of this crime. He was orking
for you, as he says.
You told him that if he would go to the
place, meet the stage and rob it, you
would be prepared to prove an alibi; that you
would prove that he was at different place at
the time the stage was robbed. You promised
him beyond any doubt that you would go into
court and that you would swear that he was at
the picket camp, a quarter of mile from
where you lived, making pickets at the time
the stage was robbed.
When the officers inquired of you about the
probability of this man Hilton being the guilty
party you expressed great surprise to them, and
said:
''Why, 1t could not be possible. was at the
picket camp, a quarter or half mile from my
house, between and o'clock, the exact hour
the stage was robbed, and I saw Mr. Hilton
there making pickets." 'ts
You told three or four men the same story,
and you did another thing-you never intended
your wife to suspect you. She don't believe
to-day you are guilty.
About the time that you had promised Hill
ton that you would be up the hill, you left
camp and your good wife, and you went-I
don't say that you went on the hill-you went
away just long enough so that if you had stood
by your promise to Hilton you would have
put your innocent, faithful wife upon the stand
as witness to prove that you went upon the
hill. She could have sworn truthfully that you
went away about that time, long enough to go
to the hill.
When you discovered that the officers had
found out that Hilton had made no pickets
there within month, and they confronted
you with that fact, then, in the language of
the street you ''fell down." You said: 81 guess
l am mistaken"
Mr. Hilton was informed of your last state
ment, and learned that you were not going to
testify to the alibi, and you confronted him and
he confronted you, ana you said: "George,
guess from the things see around me think
l am mistaken, and could not have seen you
on the hill that day"
Then you and Hilton parted friendship when
you ceased to carry out the promise you made
to him. Then and then alone the friendship
ceased between you and him. That is the
secret and there is no other reason for it.
There is no other solution but the fact that you
had failed to carry out the conspiracyas you had
agreed with him. 1t cannot be accounted for
in any other way.
That is not all. After you had told three or
four men, and than whom there are none more
respectable in Mendocino County-after YOU
had told them, and they swore on this stand
that you told them you saw Hilton on the hill
making pickets between the hours of and
O'Clock on Saturday, you changed your state
ment; and yet when you were asked if you did
not tell STANDBY, Burke and Johnson that you
| t. fhn hi
you right there, in the face of all their testi-
mony, swore that they had told a lie, all three
of them.
There is not q man, woman or child in this
courtroom but who believes you lied your
self at that time. ] don't know what the Dis
trict Attorney is going to do about that either.
know what he ought to do, because of all
men that ought to be despised and detested it
is a liar and the one who will swear to lie.
You received Mr.. Hilton at your house on
Sunday morning. He came down the creek, in
my Judgment. just as you told him to come,
that he might not leave any mark or trail or
any footprints-came down the creek and ar
rived at your house. You there had him re-
move his shoes and stockings that were wet,
and you supplied MIN with new pair of shoes
and the wet ones were thrown away and hid
den.
Mr. Hilton says that he robbed the stage of
$1O19. He took $519 of it and he gave you
$500. That money that he says that he gave
you undoubtedly was the money that the par
ties found in the stump close to your camp.
They found $780, and there is not doubt but
that you put 1t there. 1t had half the -four
sack. Mr.. Hinton's money, found at Witter
Springs, was wrapped up in the part of the
sack.
do not think anything I have said to you
is too severe. don't mean to wound your
feelings. make these remarks to this audi
ence for the good effect they may have upon
other men. do not expect to reform you. A
man that associates himself with a ehurch-a
respectable church such as the Baptist church
in this place is-and puts on the livery of
heaven to serve the devil, and one who carries
the cross bearing the image of his meek and
lowly Savior in one hand and robs his neigh
Dor with the other; for such a man say there
is no such thing as reformation.
You have been ably defended better than
any man was ever defended in this court
house. Your church has stood by you, your
pastor stood by you, probably has gone too far.
With this have nothing to do, but you have
disgraced the church. you have disgraced your
wife, you have disgraced everybody that is
connected with you.
Thank God, you have not disgraced your