Arizona republican., 1905-03-14
FINCH HELD TO ANSWER
Bicycle Thief Punished = Drunken.
 ness and Vasrancy Cases.

The examination of H. D. Finch on | the charge of obtaining money under | false pretenses, was held yesterday af- 1 ternOon before Justice Burnett and the accused was held to answer to the grand jury, the bond being fixed at 5000. Beside this case the justice had seven others one of which had rather humorous side to it
 It was the case of Tom Murnan who was on trial for drunkenness. He pleaded guilty and told a story in sub stance as follows: He has been try ing for a long time to get to Los An geles and bought ticket via the Santa Fe sometime ago and has carried it around until it is almost worn out. As the Santa Fe leaves here at f 30 a. m. Murnan had a long night ahead of him before train time. He tried sitting up to wait for the train and during his leisure got drunk and when he woke up he was in the city jail. Then he tried going to be but would always take drink too much and oversIeep. Everytime he stayed up town he would wake up in jail and when he went to bed he would miss the train This was kept up until yesterday morning he woke up in the county jail. He told the court his hard luck story and pro- missed that if released he would leave
 town this morning sure and would only take one drink all night. The court
 said he thought he could fix it so he could evade that one drink and then he would be all right so he set the hour for sentence at o'clock this morning with instructions to the sheriff to liberate him about 4:15 a. m. so he could catch the 4:3O train
 Then his baggage was ordered sent fn ion ha Ira crosslots to the depot and dodge all temptation during his fifteen minutes of liberty in town. Another case was that of David Santa, the Indian who confessed to stealing Malcom Gillet's bicycle, the particulars of which were recounted in yesterdays paper. Bicy- cle stealing has been made felony by
 the legislature now in session but the court permitted Santa to plead guilty
 to petit larceny and sentenced him to hundred days in jail.
 T. TOlamente was fined fifteen dol
 lars for drunkenness and fighting and
 his fine was paid by friends. NJ. Der
 nal on a similar charge was fined se-
 ven dollars. He had no friends and
 went to jail for seven days. R. Ro- nero for drunkenness and disorderly
 conduct was jailed for seven days. R.
 T. Austin and Jose Moyez were arretst-
 ed for Vagrancy but sentence was sus- pended.
 The Finch case took up a large part of the afternoon. Finch was arrested
 on the circumstances of a transaction
 that occurred in the Casino saloon About 1:30 a. m. on the night of the 1 incident Finch approached w. M Mayors, one of the prOprietors of the Casino stating that man '7 +ho Pal | ace saloon had been cashing checks
 for him but he was out and as he liwanted some money he asked him to cash hundred dollar check on the Phoenix National bank. Knowing that Finch had been spending money around town pretty freely and was supposed to | have plenty he was accommodated He turned around to a roulette wheel and lost the money then got a similar favor of MT. Mayors for S2OO which he also lost at gambling. Then he exhibited to Mir. Mayors a bank book showing a credit of $21S0 in the bank He asked
 that the former checks amounting to
 $500 be torn up, that he be given cash | on $70O check, his indebtedness wiped out and the balance given him in morf- ey, This was done and there were sew | eral intervening transactions at the game but when he finally left he had | S300 of the money clear that he had. | secured on the checks. In the morn- | ing it was discovered that he never did have but $50 in the bank and that he had juggled with his bank book having entered the figures 21 in front of the $50 to make the total balance on de- posit Then he was arrested. Counsel | for defense urged that the defendant could not be proceeded against crim- inally on any financial transaction that
 would not hold in a civil suit for re- covery and that as he used the money to gamble with it was a gambling debt
 The court ruled that there was no ac- ! tion for recovery and even if he was fined three times the amount of the
 money secured it would go to the coun- ! ty, not to the Casino. In other words | if crime had been committed it was against the statutes of the territory
 and not against a gambling game. The [ fact that he spent a part of the money | gambling had nothing to do with the l obtaining of 1t by false pretenses. Marshal Kinney yesterday received
 the letter from Fritz Gunther which
 was referred to in Sunday mornings 1 Republican as being en route as per | telegram to the marshal. Mir. Gunther
 is proprietor of the Murrieta Hot | ifornia.
 He writes as follows:
 l Dear Sir: We read in todays Los ! Angeles papers of the arrest of H. D.
 Finch. This very smooth young man got this hotel to the amount of fifty
 dollars Also the clerk of the Hotel
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