Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-12-16
GRAY GUILTY
Of MURDER
Pleads Second Degree to
Make Sure His Escape
From the Moose
4 RECORD FOR SWIFT JUSTICE
Judge McFie Sentenced Him to
Pen Five Days After
the Crime.

Estancia, \. NJ, Dec. 16-"If the
court will permit me to do SO, will
plead guilty to murder in the second
degree. l don't want to hang" was the
somewhat remarkable statement made
to Judge John R. McFie in the first
judicial district court here today by
w. A. Gray, arraigned before the
court on the charge OF numbering his
niece, Miss May Williamson, at Lucy,
n. NJ, on Monday December II.
Even while pleading TO the court
to be allowed to plead guilty in the
second degree. fearing the result of
a trial on an indictment charging first
degree murder, Gray sullenly main
tanned that he was not guilty of the
murder Of the girl, but had shot her
in the darkness, believing she was
some one attempting to take his life.
With but little preliminary, Judge
McFie accepted a plea admitting guilt
III the second degree and pronounced
sentence of from seventy-fve to nine.
ty-nine years in the penitentiary.
Thus was established a record for
the swift carriage of justice, which
it is believed has not been equalled
in New Mexico for years, and never
before in the history of Torrance
county.
Monday afternoon Gray was ar
rested by Sheriff Julius Meyers of
Estancia, on charge of murder. On
Tuesday he was indicted by the grand
jury, which happened to be in session,
Thursday the alleged murderer was
arraigned in court, pleaded guilty and
was sentenced. Tomorrow morning
Sheriff Meyers will leave with his
prisoner for Santa Fe and the self.
confessed murderer will begin a SEN
tence which will still be young when
his hair begins to turn white.
Gray is a man Of thirty-five years.
He has been married and has a daugh.
ter eleven years old. He says his
wife is dead.
Just what happened at the time
Gray shot Miss Williamson will prob
ably never be known, Cray maintain
ing that it was an accident insofar as
he believed she was some other per
son.
From facts which have been CLEAN
ed here and there, and from the testi-
mony rendered before the grand jury,
it is believed that Gray killed the girl
in fit of jealous rage. Miss William!
son was a school teacher and taught
school at Encino. Gray had taken a
homestead claim at Lucy, eighteen
miles from Estancia. Miss Williamson
his niece, evidently on Gray's advice,
settled upon the adjoining 100 acres
and each Saturday night rode horse
back from Encino to Lucy to do the
necessary work of proving up title,
Saturday evening Miss Williamson
went down to her claim as usual and
stayed in her cabin, some thirty feet
away from that occupied by Gray.
Monday morning at noon, Miss Will.
hanson was found dead just a few
feet outside of Gray's shack A bullet
hole in the back and terrible wound
in the top Of the head, told the cause
of her death.
Gray never denied that shots from
his gun killed the girl. He claimed
however, that some one entered his
room at o'clock in the morning Be
lieving it to be some one bent on kill
ing him, Gray pulled a gun and fired
Upon his own admission, however,
Gray says that he first shot the girl
in the back. When she fell to the
floor on her hands and knees, he fired
another shot, which almost tore the
top of her head away.
That Gray is guilty of the murder,
however, and that If it was not done
with malice aforethought, it was done
while he was wide awake and in full
possession of his senses, is the general
belief of those who know the particu.
lars of the case. This is indicated by
the demeanor which Gray bore in
court. He feared jury trial on
first degree charge and believed that
he would save his neck by
a prison sentence
Judge John r. McFie an, .s..-r.
Attorney E. C. Abbott left ., SAM.
Fe today, to attend the fu "si Of
Frank W. Shearon, late Gle fg
first district court.
Court will probably be resi- u Sa