Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-09-20
MURDER In THE Sd DEGREE
That Was the Verdict Brought in Early
This Morning in the Trial Of Tomas Do
minguez for Murder.
ANOTHER CASE ON TRIAL TODAY

The Dominguez murder trial came to
an end last night. After being out six
hours, until o'clock this morning, the
jury rendered verdict of guilty of MUIR
der in the third degree. Judge McFie
convened court to receive the verdict
and to discharge the jury. In their YER
dict the jury recommended the defendant
to the mercy of the court. The penalty
for murder in the third degree is from
one to twenty years in the penitentiary
The circumstances are that on June
5th, 1895, the defendant, Tomas Domin-
guez, beat Clemente Gutierrez to death
with rock. The defendant claimed
that his act was provoked by his dis
covering the deceased in a compromising
attitude with his wife and that he knew
that moreover Gutierrez had been guilty
OF criminal intimacy with her for long
time prior to this event. The prosecu-
tion tacitly admitted the latter charge
but denied the former and maintained
that he had no right under the circum-
stances to take the law into his own
hands.
The case was handled for the prosecu-
tion and for the defense also with skill
and energy. Mr.. Gortner, district at
torney, had it well in hand, was fully
prepared, did first-cass in examining the
witnesses for the prosecution and made
an able and thorough argument to the
jury. Indeed he is proving himself to
be an able prosecuting attorney For
the defense, Mr.. Pope did remarkably
well. There being a 'woman in the
case," he had something tangible to work
on and he certainly worked on the sym
pathies of the jury very successfully.
Mr.. Pope is painstaking and studies his
cases well and presented the testimony
for the defense very thoroughly. His
argument was good and evidently had
an effect with the jury. 1t is one of the
cases where both prosecutor and de-
fendant ought to be right we'll satisfied
with the verdict
AN ACQUITTAL.
When court convened this morning the
case of the Territory vs.. ]. Miller, in
dicted for assault and battery, was taken
up. Miller, who stated on the stand that
his right name is j. L. Devine, was en-
poyed at Cerrillos last spring repairing
buggies and painting. He is charged
with assaulting Juan de Dios Montana
on the road between Cerrillos and Madrid
and beating him over the head with
bottle of varnish and seriously and per-
manently iniuring him. Miller has been
in the county jail since last April G.
L. SolIgnac, Esq.,, was appointed by the
court to defend him and District Attor-
ney Gortner appeared for the territory.
The work OF getting jury lasted but
few minutes and the first twelve names
drawn were accepted. Only one witness
was introduced on each side, Montana
for the prosecution and the defendant
in his own behalf. The prosecuting wit
ness. Montana, showed several scars
alleged to be the result of the beating he
received at the hands of the defendant.
He was very much confused as to details
OF what transpired and it is claimed that
his mind is clouded as result of the
assault. Judge McFie overruled mo-
tion to dismiss. Miller testified that he
had been with Montana on the occasion
referred to but the latter had left him and
being very drunk had evidently fallen in
the road and cut himself. The case was
finished this forenoon and the jury re-
tired at half past eleven o'clock. A ver-
dict of not guilty was returned at noon.