The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1903-12-29

ernoon. He is crushed in spirit and ap-
pears to be more troubled at the RESPONSE
bility for his wife's death than with fear
of the punishment he knows he shall re-
ceive.
I Several times yesterday in his broken
Wife dead. Too bad, too bad. Whisky,
all come from whisky"
! When the charge was read and inter
preted to him before the court, Smokalem
said that he was drunk at the time and
could not remember, but supposed he
killed his wife and would plead guilty.
Judge Smell asked him what made him
think that he had killed his wife, if he
could not remember anything about it.
Through the interpreter he said that when
he woke up Sunday morning he found
her dead, and since everybody told him
it was his fault he concluded that it was
so. ~
To further inquiries he stated that he
and his wife had driven home from town
in drunken condition and that on the
way his wife had fallen from the buggy.
badly injuring her face. With much diff
Guilty he had lifted her back into the
buggy and driven on home. When they
reached home, he continued, she was still
alive and he removed her clothing and
put her to bed on the mattress on the
! floor, covering her as well as he could.
When he awoke the next morning he
shook his wife to rouse her and found
that she was dead
| When asked if he had any trouble with
his wife or had beaten her, he said that
he remembered nothing about it.
He insisted that none of the children
were at home when he and his wife
reached there Saturday. This contradicts
| the story told by Mary Smokalem, who
claims to have seen her parents quarreling
and that she saw him strike her mother
with club.
Deputy Sheriff Warren, who made the
arrest, was questioned in regard to the
appearance of the body. as to evidence
of blows, and replied that there was only
one mark which could have been caused
from buggy wheel, and that was over
| the eve, and that the face and body was
otherwise badly bruised, mostly caused by
the fist.
Judge Smell said that the plea of guilty
would be entered against Smokalem, but
not accepted until further investigation.
| Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Harvey was
advised to have all persons best acquaint-
ed with the case appear in court as
early as possible. If the evidence brought
out by such witnesses justifes it the plea
of guilty will be formally accepted.
Smokalem's forgetfulness as to what oc-
Cured is not given much credence.
| Harris Smokalem, held as witness
against his father, will be turned over to
the Indian school superintendent in order
that he may return to his studies.
| No inquest will be held. A post-mortem
examination was performed yesterday aft
ernoon. Coroner Brown, who assisted in
making the examination, said, concerning
the results, that death was undoubtedly
caused by a blow on the head. Marks of
strangulation and other evidenced that the
woman had been choked were revealed.
Bruises on the chest. and face indicated
that repeated blows were struck. There
is no doubt, however, about the blow on
the head causing death. This caused Sc
we're conclusion of the brain, followed by a
hemorrhage, which resulted fatally.
! The remains were buried this morning
in the Hill Indian cemetery on the Puyal-
lup road.
The question of whether the case came
under the jurisdiction of the state or the
United States court was discussed be-
tween Assistant Prosecuting Attorney
Harvey and Assistant United States At
torney Cushman. 1t was decided finally
to prosecute in the state courts. The fed
eral law provides that when crime is
committed upon reservation by tribal
Indian the United States court has Juris-
diction in the case. The question OF whe-
ther the old Puyallup reservation is a
reservation any more came up. The state
proceeded on the supposition that the res
ervation no longer existed since the re-
strictions were taken off by an act of con-
gress.