The herald., 1898-05-28
GARCIA PEACHES
He MAKES A BRAND new
CONFESSION
MARY DID THE DEED
SHOWED HIM COLLINS BODY
AFTERWARD
A SENSATIONAL DAY IN COURT
At the Afternoon Session, After an
Interview With His Lawyers,
Garcia's Tale Is Changed

Yesterday, during the trial of Mary
Garcia in department one of the superior
court, for the murder of Charles Collins
Mt South Santa Monica in the month OF
February, the only interesting episode
that has so far taken place in one OF the
most hum-drum murder trials on record in
this county, occurred. 1t would have pre-
sented much more sensational features if
Assistant District Attorney Williams, for
the people, had allowed his witness to pro-
ceed with his narrative without putting
questions to him, which broke the thread
of the story, and for that reason the public
will probably never know how Mary ex-
planned the particulars Of the murder to
Indian Pete, provided he told the truth on
the stand. 1t is to be presumed that he
did, as he has nothing to gain or lose by
Giving evidence, and could not be COM
pelled to testify unless he felt like It.
The proceedings opened up wearily in de-
partment one with the cross-examination
of Coroner Campbell by Mr.. Sallee, who
bored the witness, the jury and everybody
else with questions relating to the doctors
knowledge of blood corpuscles and his IA
miliarity with standard medical works
treating on menstruation and kindred sub
jects. 1t was known to a few in the court
room that the prosecution had prepared
surprise, of which the defense was una
ware, and that 1t would be sprung in the
forenoon. 1t was awaited with interest.
Mary Garcia must have had an intuition
that something was going to happen, as
she was more nervous than usual. She
moved around in her chair uneasily,
coughed, twisted her handkerchief into
rope, made faces, which did not increase
her beauty and behaved generally like a
person on the edge of distraction. Sting
aree Mary" as she used to be known in the
sailor tenderoin of San Pedro. is not
thing of beauty, and not an object for
sympathy, but her contortions were some
times painful to behold.
When DR.. Campbell had been released
from the stand, Pedro Garcia's name was
called. He was not in the court room but
soon shuff1ed in. Marys face fell and her
looks indicated plaintly that her thoughts
ran into a perplexed groove, and that she
was not reassured as to what that "-
fool" as she playfully calls him, was going
to blurt out, possibly to make the outlook
for her case still harder than it was. She
gave him warning look, which he caught
on the fly. When he left the stand her eye
rested for fleeting moment upon him and
then it reflected nothing but hate and an
ger.
Pedro started all right enough, and the
whole story, as he proposed to tell it, might
have come out had not Mr.. Williams
broken it's continuity, while the witness
was meandering on by taking him off ths
track and reverting to matters already
testified to. And when the assistant dis
trict attorney, as the noon hour struck
said That's ALL" Pedro had not yet told
how Mary had accounted to him for the
killing of old Charles Collins, while the
witness had taken trip to South Santa
Monica.
The defense tried to keep Pedro from
testifying on the ground that he was
Mary's husband and that he could not give
evidence against her without her consent.
The protest was unavailing because the
examination showed that he had never
been married to Mary, but on the con-
trary is the husband of another woman,
from whom he never was divorced.
Indian Pete's Story
AS soon as Pedro Garcia was called and
sworn he took the stand. "At the time
Collins was killed 1 was living at Santa
Monica with Mary Garcia" he said. 81
was married to her neither by the church
nor by the civil authorities. 1 became
acquainted with her about eleven years
ago. 1 was married at one time to Fran