The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-30
Twenty Years In State Prison For
Murder of Egan.
PLEADED FOR LENIENCY
ALFRED BENNETT WANTS TO BE
LIBERATED FROM CITY JAIL.
Martin Christopherson Enters Anoth-
er Proceeding Against the As
signee of the Western Shoe and
Dry Goods Company-Probate Or
ders, Miscellaneous Court News.

Jesse F. McMillen, who pleaded guilty
on Monday to murder in the second
degree for the part he took in the kill
ing of John Egan, was yesterday SEN
fenced by Judge Norrell to 20 years
Imprisonment in the state prison.
The defendant appeared to have con-
siderably recovered from the despond-
ent and apparently hopeless condition
of mind in which he was when he
pleaded guilty on Monday, and re-
ceiVed his sentence without any par
ticular show of emotion, standing
erect with folded arms as he listened
TO the remarks of the court, the clos
ing words of which sealed his doom.
He was brought into court by Dep
uty Sheriff McLelland, and when asked
by Judge Norrell of ne had anything
to say before sentence was pronounced,
he slowly rose to his feet and made
statement to the court in so low tone
of voice that It was very difficult for
those even sitting closest to him to
hear, and his honor several times re-
quested him to speak in more audible
tones. The burden of his statement was
that he did not realize the graveness
CT the act of putting morphine in the
beer which Egan was to drink. He
had not the slightest intention of TAX
ing the mans life, and did not know,
he said, that morphine was poison.
Unfortunately, he allowed himself to
be persuaded to commit the act, and
to be made a tool of by another, and
in conclusion he asked the court to be
as lenient with him as possible.
Attorney George H. Rhea, who has
recently been McMillen's counsel, ana
exercised great ingenuity and spared
no pains TO save him, made a short,
but eloquent and touching plea for
leniency. He recited the previous good
character of McMillen, and spoke of
his respectable parents and good train
ing, and graphically told of how he
met with evil associates and unwit-
tingly fell into the crime which he
now regretted so much. McMillen,
counSe! moreover said. was not likely
to live long. He was afflicted with con-
sumption, and even now was so poorly
that it was with great difficulty he
could talk in an audible tone of voice.
The confinement in Jail for the last
year had told on him, and even not a
long sentence was very likely to prove
fatal.
Assistant County Attorney Putnam,
on behalf of the prosecution, said that
in view Of what his principal, Mr. Van
Colt, had stated to the court on Mon
day, he did not care to say much The
sentence be 20 years in the state
prison, and considering that with good
behavior, according to the Utah stat
utes. a sentence of 20 years meant
really but ten years and ten months
actual time in prison, he did not think
the punishment was too severe. He
would leave it with the court.
Judge Norrell ordered MeMillen to
stand up, and said that he had no
doub4 in his mind that Egan's killing
was murder in the first degree. He
did not, however. think that either
Phelps or McMillen intended to kill
Egan, but the law says that when
mans life is taken by poison, when
the motive is robbery, it is murder in
the first degree. What Mr.. Rhea had
stated to the court, his honor said, had
carried considerable weight. He really
had intended TO impose a heavier pen
atty than 20 years, but from what he
had heard he thought that McMillen
was not the principal in the tragedy,
but that he had been controlled by
Phelps. Under all the circumstances
the sentence of the court was that the
defendant be imprisoned in the state
prison fer 20 years.
McMillen was then taken back to the
county Jail and later in the day deliv-
e-ed to the state prison, and began
working out his sentence.