The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-07-09
Stab inflicted With Pair Causes
Death Of Injured Man.
AssaiIant Held.
fFrOm Saturday. Adr.rti,or.)

oNtT tWeiNe years spent IN portuguese
prison for a similar crime Mesquita
does not yet know that his fellow.
workman whom he stabbed with a pair
of scissors last Tuesday morning is dead
and his first intimation of it may come
today when new society enters after
his name the same old charge he faced
years ago.
Sousa, after lingering for five days,
died at half-past one o'clock yesterday
morning in the Queens Hospital from
peritonitis following his wounds. The
brawl occurred early Tuesday morning
| in Miller street tenement, and was
| little more than drunken quarrel. Both
were guitar makers working for Nunes,
and to all intents and purposes firm
friends. That acquaintance dated from
the arrival of the Harpalion in Homo.
lulu with eighteen hundred immigrants
on board.
The First Crime
Twelve years before when his two
children were but few months and a
year old respectively Mesquita had
faced the court of his own country on
charge brought against him for mur-
dering an aged one-armed fish seller of
his native province. The man was tried
in the Concelho des Chances, his native
township, was found guilty and sentenc
ed to twenty-five years in prison.
Then came the revolution in Portu-
gal and as the last smoke cleared off
numbers of criminals found themselves
free men. Among these was Mesquita.
With his twelve hest years behind him,
himself stepped in the training only
the prison could give, he returned to
his home. He found his wife had been
dead two years and his daughters, who
did not know him, living with their
grandmother. Two months after he
| heard of the offers of the recruiting
agents from Hawaii. He Joined the
Harpalion. His two daughters, Celes.
tina and Marie begged to be left be-
hind, but he compelled them to 60.
Starts Well Here.
Things went well in their new home.
Mesquita got work in the town, form
ed new friendships and forgot the stain
that attended his name in the old coun-
try. But it was condition he was lit
tie used to and he abused it.
Monday night he and Sousa, now his
victim, after drinking bout together,
went home in hack. Mesquita went
boring room. Finally, after a nap.
Mesquita got up and commenced to
cause trouble, so much so, in fact, that
the police were soon called for. Officer
Nobriga responded, quieted the family
and seeing that Mesquita was being
, cared for by Cabral, his room mate, he
left him there
But after midnight the Portuguese
nn f-,a
quiet him but he threatened to stab
them all. Finally he told his youngest
daughter that soon she would be with.
out father and mother and that she
would have no one left but her god par.
ents. After considerable more rumpus
ne left the room on pretext. Sudden
| ly Cabral heard poundings on his wall
and sounds of scuffle in the next
room. He ran to the door but found
that it was locked from the outside.
He then hid under the table.
Fights for Husband.
| Meanwhile in the other room, appar-
emily without reason Mesquita was at.
tacking Sousa. In his hands he held
his little daughter s pair of scissors
which he had taken from her bed when
| he left his own room. In the scuffle
Sousa had been thrown down and his
wife in vain endeavor to protect him
sat down on him and spread her skirts
over him in an attempt to ward off the
blows OF the weapon.
| Mesquita stabbed at her knee and cut
it and the hand she tried to seize the
scissors with. Then he pushed her off
and drove the scissors into the man IS
abdomen, just above the left groin, cut
ting him elsewhere but inflicting minor
injuries outside of the first wound.
The police were eventually called for,
Mesquita was arrested and Sousa taken
to the Queens s Hospital. The report
turned in by the officer gave the iniu.
ries solely as a cut in the left leg and
one on the shoulder and his superiOrs
paid little attention to it, giving orders
that Mesquita should be held until il
was seen whether such complications as
blood.poisoning would set in. They
We're considerably surprised yesterday
when the hospital authorities tele
phoned that the man had died.
Acting Chief of Detectives Kellett
was at once put to work on the case
He soon found out the man S history
from his daughters, one of whom il
working at Fred Whitney's. Mesquiti
himself, unaware that Sousa was dead
told the story of the fight after som,
questioning and its main details wer,
more or less cOrroborated by the othe
witnesses. He said that he had no
meant to hurt the woman but that h,
had attacked her husband because h
had called him bad names He him
selves led the officers to the empty 10
into which he had thrown the scissor
and they are now being held in evi
denee. Kellett has peculiar interes
in the case as the presence of the seis
sors furnishes a parallel TO the Bosti
murder of Iwilei in which the stabbin
is also supposed to have been done wit
scissors. His theory of that ease II
been laughed at in some instances o
= the excuse that scissors could not ful
nish a fatal wound and he may use th
+ Sousa case in the Bostie trial as an e,
!, ample to show that it can, as the ev
: denee here he believes to be positive.
GIVE TT A TRIAL.