The herald., 1896-06-26
MulNNIS MURDER TRIAL
The Defendant Olives His Version Of the Trag.
edy-The Verdict

edy-The Verdict
The trial of James McGinnis for the
murder of his brother n-law, Robert
Sebastian, at Pomona, on the 9Th OF
March last, was resumed before Judge
Smith in department one of the superior
court yesterday morning.
After showing that Sebastian was a
steady, hard-w working man of a peace
able disposition, who was well thought
of by his neighbors and acquaintance
the prosecution rested.
The defense opened by calling Mr.. Col
Inns, with whom Sebastian had a con-
tract for hauling hay, to show that on
the day before the killing the two men
were working for him, and that he did
not notice any trouble between them.
The defendant then took the stand,
and gave his version of the trouble
which led up to the killing of Sebastian
at his hands. He said:
81 came to the house about o'clock
and started to unhitch my horse. My
sister and Bob Sebastian came out of
the house and began to help me, but |
told them l could do it myself. I had
been drinking, but was not drunk, only
under the influence of wine. / unhitch-
ed. took the harness off the horse and
carried 1t into a store room where | kept
it. l then went into the kitchen where
my sister was and spoke to her. l said
to her. Rachel, l am going to San Ber-
nardino tomorrow. Just as l had Spok-
en- those words and before / had said
anything else, Sebastion came in from
the adjoining room and eXcla lined:
'G-d-you. what are you saying to
my Wife l did not have time to reply,
for without word he began throwing
things at me. He threw a glass at me
and it went by my head then he threw
glass tumbler and it struck me on the
head. My sister ran in between us and
[ backed out of the door. He kept throw
ing glasses following me out on the
porch. We clinched and fought back
into the kitchen. He had glass pitcher
in his hand and raised it to strike me
AS he threw it at me. lodged under it
and prOdded him with my knife. which
l had open in my hand. He closed with
me, threw me down and fell on top of
me. Then he got up and ran out of the
house. Not word was spoken between
US all this time.
After he ran out my sister asked me
for the knife and | gave it to her. I sat
down all daZed from blows I had receiy-
ed and loss of blood. ] did jump out the
back window and went over in the euca-
lyptus grove, where ! was arrested.
thought Sebastian had gone away to get
implements to attack me with and do
me up. | did not know he was dead I'M
til next morning.
McGinnis was very closely cross-ex-
amined, but he stuck very closely to the
story as told by him on the direct ex-
animation. He insisted that he did not
know when he opened his knife, and de-
clared that he had no intention of kill
ing his brother-in-law, or even doing
him serious injury. He insisted that he
acted in selfdefense, and that Sebas-
tian was the aggressor throughout.
Several other witnesses We're intro
duced, but their testimony was unim-
portant, and the balance of the afternoon
was taken up with the argument. In
his closing address, Gen. Williams was
very bitter and denounced McGinnis as
an assassin, saying that he had slain
Sebastian in his own house in cold blood
and that there We're no mitigating cir
cumStanceS. Once or twice counsel for
the defense interposed objections to
Gen. Williams remarks, but no notice
was taken of them by the court, except
to admonish the jury that they were
to pay no attention to any remarks of the
district attorney not based on the evil
dence.
The judge finished the reading of the
instructions a few minutes before 5
o'clock, and the jury retired to deliberate.
Half an hour later the jurymen were