The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-10-12
THIRTY YEARS.
Justice Collins Gives Cara
brandt the Maximum
Sentence for His
offence.
HIS ATROGIoUs CRIME
No Trace of the Imbecility To-
day That, With His Youth,
Saved Him From the
Gallows.

With smile on his lips nineteen-year-
old John Garrabrandt in the Court of
Oyer and Terminer this morning, heard
Justice Collins sentence him to thirty
years at State Prison, the maximum
penalty for second degree murder, of
which he was convicted. 1t was not the
smile of the imbecile the youthful MUIR
Sderer's counsel had endeavored to prove
him, but seemed to be smile of triumph
and defiance.
Garrabrandt is the first murderer in this
State who has received the maximum
penalty of thirty years under the act of
1893, which increases the penalty for man
slaughter from twenty to thirty years.
His crime was particularly atrocious
one. On the afternoon of May last he
lured boy friend, Henry Mass, into the
cellar of his home in Jersey City and after
beating him to death with a siung shot
made for the purpose, robbed him of 50
and ran away to Nyack, On. Y, where he
was captured.
1t was 1890 o'clock this morning when
the youthful murderer was brought into
court handcuffed to Under Sheriff Heavey.
The only relative of either the murderer
or his victim present when the sentence
was imposed was Mrs. Peter Murray,
Garrabrandt's aunt, and wife of Police
man Murray, who aided in the capture OF
the prisoner.
Judge Blair sat on the bench with JUS
tice Collins, and when Prosecutor Erwin
moved for the sentencing of Garrabrandt
the prisoner arose in his seat with an air
of almost absent indifference and smile
on his lips.
Justice Collins said
"You have been convicted of murder in
the second degree. The court approves of
the verdict. The defense of moral inn
becility has no standing. Mental imbe-
cility was not proven. 1t does not seem
to the court that you are insane, but
rather you had a blunted moral sense
While you knew what you did was wrong
that fact seeLled to have no deterrent force
upon you. You could have refrained' from
that act, but you did not and you are
responsible for that act. Had the jury
decided that you were mentally ire
sponsible it would have been the duty of
the court to have committed you to
lunatic asylum and unless that defect be-
came removed you would have had to
stay there all your life and should that
fact become removed you would have
been guilty of murder in the first degree
and would have forfeited your life for
murder perpetrated in the commission of
the offense of robbery.
without your confession there would
be no proof of robbery and the specific
intent to kill was lacking, so that except
for your confessng, murder in the second
degree would have been logical and adj
missible. With you confession accented
in its full extent the verdict could have
been properly murder in the first degree.
Under those circumstances the Court sees
no reason why the full penalty of the
law should not be imposed. You lured
your companion into private place and
there tied his hands and struck him so
that he died, for the purpose of robbing
him. even though you did not intend to
kill him. If you are not defective in your
mental organization so as to be irrespon-
sible, still since your condition leads to
such an act. you are not safe to be at
large. The sentence of the Court is that
you be confined in States Prison at Tren-
ton for a period of thirty years.