The San Francisco call., 1897-08-18

proceed with the preliminary examina-
ton. At the request of Attorney Sche!ler
an order excluding all witnesses from the
room was made. Attorney Scheller re-
marked that he did not then object to the
presence of the Sheriff, but he might make
an objection later in the proceedings.
Assistant District Attorney Partridge
replied tnat Sheriff Lyndon was in charge
of the prisoners.
There are enough officers withou: the
Sheriff" said Attorney SchelIer.
I'VE have right to pick oCr own otfl-
GERS was the response.
"When the time comes " said Scheller,
''we will make an issue of it."
The subject was then dropped.
Sheriff Lyndon is an important witness,
as he OBTAINED butchers confession.
Emil Menke, teamster who resides on
the Llagas about three miles from the
Schotield ranch, was the first witness
called. District Attorney Harrington con-
Quoted the direct examination. Menke
was not willing witness, but his story
came out after multitude of questions.
Stripped of immaterial answers to imma-
terial questions his testimony was as fol-
lows:
II was driving along the road that runs
in front of Scbofeld's ranch on the morn
ing of August Z. 1t was q bout $50 o'clock.
As l was passing the house, butcher
me Schotield had been shot. | asked b i'm
who did the shooting; he said he didn t
know. l got off the wagon and went over
and looked at Schoheld's body. 1t was
lying at the woodshed door. No one was
near it. Mrs. Schoield was on the porch
with her baby, and she was crying. the
door OF the shed was about quarter open
and could see that the window in the
east of the shed was wide onen. Scho-
fields foot were between the door and
the threshold, and his head pointed
toward the house. His body was lying
at an angle and his head extended out be-
yond the line of the shed. The feet were
not over six inches from the threshold.
Il did not touch tie body and don't
remem ber whether it was bleeding. l
noticed that there was a pool of blood
back Of Schoteld's head. A shotgun was
lying close to his feet, but / don't know
whether it was cooked or not. The gun
was about two or three feet from Scho-
fields s feet, and lying almost the same
angle as the body. The muzzle pointed
in the same direction as his head. On
the inner side of the partly opened door
was Schoteld's feet, and the gun lay on
the outer side. SchofieIds hat was lying
on the threshold of the shed door, l just
took a glance at the place and did not
look az things very close"
This concluded Menke's direct exami-
nation, 1t lasted exactly an hour. On
cross-examination by Attorney Scheller,
the witness stated that Mrs. Schofield
wanted to move the body into the house.
As to the measurements he had given,
they were not exact, but what he believed
them to be from casual glance. He
could not say whether the blood under
Schofeld's head was fresh or not.
Charles A. Wright, who lives on the
Llagas. about mile and half from the
Scotield place, was the next witness
Wright had been drinking hard liquor
before he went on the stand, and he
seemed to care more for amusing the
crowd tnan for making direct statement
of what he knew ABOUT the case. Wright's
story, ''boiled down" so as to leave out
iIl-tlmed humor, was as follows:
"Irving Mann came to my place about
5:45 and told me some one had shot his
father. He was crying so much | could
not understand half OF what he said, but
there was something about man on a
my breakfast and then went and got
a neighbor, William Adams, to go with
me to the Scofeld place. [ took
my time, and it must have been 7:30
O'Clock when Adams and | got to the
house. There were two men there
Price, my next-door neigh Dor, and man
named Melonson, who, l think, lives in
San Jose. l saw Schofield lying dead and
lifted the cloth from his face so as to see
where he was shot. There was shotgun
near the body.
Mrs. Schotield was near the porch and
Price and Melonson stood near her. The
body lay with the feet to the south and
the head almost to the north and facing
west There was a gun lying near Scho-
fields feet, but just noticed it. that was
all. | could not tell whether it was
loaded.
Il looked at the BODY and noticed that
blood was oozing from one of the ears
and there WAS a little blood from the
wound under the eye. AS l lifted the
cloth my hand touched the dead mans
face and noticed that the face was cold"
DR.. John I. Higgins of Morgan Hill
was the last witness examined to-day
The prosecution first brought out that the
witness had had seven years OF surgical
and medical experience three wears of
which were spent in the City and
County Hospital at st. Paul, Mimi. Dr.
higgins then testified as follows:
"On the morning of August 7 l went to
the Schoheld ranch, arriving there at
about S:45 O'Clock. 1 found the body of
Schotield lying near the shed, which is
about forty feet from the house. made
an examination OF the body. First 1 took
hold of the knee to try its fexibility. I
found it rigid, the pressure on the knee
slightly disturbing the entire BODY. /
touched the face and ran nv hand over
the breast and abdomen, but in the last
two instances there was a thickness of
cloth between my hand the body. The
face was cold and the body was cold. /
did not see any blood flowing from the
wounds. There was blood there, and
where it had become exposed to the air 1t
was clotted and had become quite dark,
and in spots it had become hardened.
Rigor mortis had set in in the body.
think the body had been dead
for more than three hours, as peo-
pie at the place claimed. Yes, I
think Schofield had been dead more than
four hours-perhaps six hours. and pos
sibly longer than than. He had not been
d ad long enough for decomp position, as
that does not set in until rigor mortis mas
passed away"
DR.. Higgins gave 1t as his opinion that
in the case of vigorous man like Scho-
field being killed suddenly rigor mortis
would not be as complete as it was when
a