Weekly journal-miner., 1911-05-24

of A. L. Rhode, accused of the mur
 der of H. L. Murphy was concluded
 yesterday afternoon, and after argu
 ments by the attorneys this morning
 the case will go to the jury.
 That self defense would be thu
 plea of the prisoner, was expected and this proved to be the case when
 he was placed upon the stand in his own behalf.
 When the morning session opened
 the prosecution continued the presen. tation of testimony by placing w
 N. Palmer upon the stand. Witness
 was one of those who heard of the
 tragedy and visited the scene while
 the body of Murphy laid upon the
 ground in the lane. He saw a rock
 lying close to the wire fence but he could not swear positively that there were similar rocks in the vii
 einity. Justice Stephens took the rock and also searched the body of deceased, finding therein a small purse and an ordinary pocket knife which was unopened. All of these articles were subsequently, introduced in evidence when MT. Stephens was on the stand, his testimony being similar to that of witness Palmer.
 J. c. Maxwell's testimony was also ~corroborated. In his opinion the dis tance from the mule in the lane to Rhodes team in the field was from seventy to seventy-five yards.
 W. G. Wingfield, the next witness, heard conversation, between the de- ceased and defendant in his store on the evening before the tragedy. Mur- phy had offered to sell out or buy out their contract interests and Rhode had answered, "I will see you to- morrow.''
 Alfred NJ. Burleson was the first man to arrive at the scene where the women and Rhode were present. He corrobOrated the statements of preceding witnesses as to the posi- tion of the body and other details as to distances and the manner in which defendant was dressed.
 This closed the evidence for the prosecution, and after the noon re- cess, the defendant. A. L. Rhode, was the first witness for the defense.
 He had lived in Camp Verde a year and was engaged in farming. The dead man was his brother-in-law On July the night before the trag- edy, his wife repeated a conversation to him which she had had with Mrs. Murphy, in which Murphy had de elared, so he alleged, that if witness plOwed a certain piece of ground, it would be the last time he would ever stick a blow in the ground. Some time previous defendant and Mur- phy had engaged in a dispute as to whether a certain tract of ground | should be sowed in corn, or held | for Fall sowing. At another time in June, Murphy had warned defendant, | so he averred, against blowing the ground, saying "I1l stop you or I'll kill you" Murphy had a written contract with him to farm the land i on shares having secured same upon that he could sell out | if the agreement were in writing. | Witness then denied that he had told Mir Maxwell that he wanted to keep Murphy there as long as possible in order ito make him as miserable as i he could"
 Coming to the day of the trouble, l defendant testified: ''I had hitched 1 up and was in the field going to the ground to blow it, when was hailed by Murphy who said: "Get out I want to talk to you" I did so and went toward him and he said: "What | are you doing over there7 Didn't 1 tell you to stop that plowing?" He had a rock in his hand and advanced | toward me and believing he was go- ing to try to kill me, I pulled my gun and fired it. He still advanced ! and I fired again. He still came toward me and threw the rock and I shot and hit him and he fell. Mur- Phy had at one time boasted that he | had killed a COW with a rock and l feared that my life was in danger. called MT. Reed with the idea that he might assist Mr Murphy in some way"
 Defendant stated that he had vol 1 untarily surrendered to the officers. 1 Recurring to the alleged threats against his life, he had been warned that he was in danger by Albert s. 1 Johnson who was an employe on the TaL l.