The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-01-16
MATEO COLON
FOUND GUILTY
AssaiIant of Japanese Nurse
Gets Fullest Penalty
of the Law.

Give me liberty, or give me death,
quoted Mateo Colon. one of the tough
est Porto Ricans in the Territory, in
the course of his voluntary statements
during his trial before Judge Robin
son yesterday Either was beyond the
power of the judge and jury. but they
gave him everything they could, ten
years at hard labor and a fine of one
thousand dollars. Colon was being
| tried for committing a murderous as
| sault upon Mrs. Koyo Akahoshi on
October Is last. His victim was a
1 nurse at the Japanese hospital on IL
! liha street and was on duty at the time,
| surprising Colon in the act of trespass-
| ing, presumably with burglarious in
| tent. To escape he knocked the woman
\ down and, when she attemted to rise,
| plunged a knife into her back, the
wound barely missing being a fatal
one
After committing this crime Colon is
|
murderous assault the same night,
leaving a Japanese boy desperately
wounded in a Japanese hotel on Liliha
street. He was captured by officer
| Kanae some days afterwards, after
having pulled his knife on Officer
Lynch who attempted to arrest him the
previous day.
The police department, assisted by
Of ~
ais department, had worked I'D a
strong case against the accused. The
assaulted woman identified him posi-
lively as the man who had stabbed
her, another witness testified to seeing
him running away from the direction
of the hospital on that morning and
other evidence went in to show that
he had had a knife at the time. His
criminal record was put in, showing
that he had already served two years
for an assault with a deadly weapon
and had been released from jail on
another sentence only few weeks be-
fore he committed the wanton and
murderous assault on Mrs. Akahoshf.
In spite of the advice of his counsel,
E. w. Sutton, Colon insisted upon 60
ing on the witness stand. There he
ton with the crimes charged, making
his Patrick Henry appeal for liberty
or death. He desired, he said, to bring
to the attention of the court the ille-
gality of the charge against hirr1, which
had resulted from conspiracy on the
part of A. NJ. Brown and William
Henry. Henry had circulated a report
that he was bandit, this report hav-
pIhliChnd N a H0nn1ly1sl
papers on October %. All the evidence
brought against him had been the per-
jured testimony of the police and that
of people who had never seen him in
their lives prior to the trial.
In spite of the repeated cautioning |
of the court. Colon rambled on in this
style for nearly half an hour, abusing |
all who had had any connection with |
the trial. Once, when those in the
courtroom smiled at his extravagances,
he lectured them on the improperly |
of laughing over such a serious mat
ter, cautioning them to wait until ne
was in his grave before they made
joke out of it. He was sharply called |
to order by Judge Robinson, who told !
him that that kind of testimony was
not wanted from him.
proper to testify to the truth here re-
torted the prisoner.
Deputy Attorney General Fleming
made good address to the jury, fol-
lowing Mr.. Sutton, who made the best
of the material at his command. The
jury retired at few minutes before
five and were just seven minutes in
upon their verdict of
guilty.
Judge Robinson then passed sentence
as above, giving the prisoner the ex-
treme penalty of the law.
Colon will be put on trial tomorrow
for his alleged attempt to murder a
Japanese man a short time after and
under almost the same circumstances
as the crime for which he was SEN
fenced today In this case the author
tiles have as equally strong evidence
as in the one just concluded and a
verdict of guilty is confidently ex-
pected.
This desperate has particularly
vicious record here and in Porto Rico.
In his home island he is known as a
strong candidate man." a thug who
IAN be depended on to put man out Of
the road if paid to do so. The express I
sion owes its origin to a Porto Rican s
practise of winning an election before {
polling day by disposing of the strong
candidates in an informal way, leav- ,
ing the field open to the others. {
RAIN INTERRUPTED THE ACTION.
The case of the Hawaiian Carriage
Company against Schuman had been
let for yesterday morning, but the
heavy rains prevented the parties to
he action from appearing, the matter
soing over until called
1t was not in Judge Lindsay's court
llone that the rain interrupted the
proceedings, although none of the
'ther actions had to be postponed so
The heavy rains of the
,ast few weeks have searched out and '
coated every weak spot in the slate
oof of the Judiciary building ana yes I
erday morning the upper corridors L
we're swimming. Assistant Superin-
endent of Public Works Rowland was
ent over from the department to see
what he could do in the matter and to
ave his attention called to the state I
f affairs. Someone suggested THAI