The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-03-27
JUDGE breaches SERMON
Declares ofense of Which Cerenzia was
Convicted Most Abhorrent in the
Category of Crimes Under the Statute
Prisoner Makes Dramatic Appeal.


Nicholas Cerenz1a, convicted ny
Jury Of making a criminal assault on
his own daughter, Mary Cerenzla, an
eIeven-year-old girl, was this morning
sentenced by Judge Belden to term
of thirty-fve years in the state PRISON
at Waupun. Before Cerenzia was SEN
fenced the court denied motions for ar
rest of Judgment and tor new trial.
Cerenzia was called before the court
and he made dramatic appeal, deelar-
ing himself innocent of the charge. lie
drew from his pocket a picture winch
had been taken before he was sent to
Jail awaiting a trial, and asked the
court to look at him and consider II ne
could what he had already suffered IN
connection with the case. In sentenc-
ing Cerenzia, Judge Belden delivered
one Of the most remarkable pronounce
ments ever heard from the bench in
Kenosha court. He said:
You stand convicted Of one of the
most awful Of crimes; one regarded by
the law, made by the people as pun
ishment of offenders and as measure
Of protection to society, as next to
murder Formerly the life Of the rap
list was taken by the people, If not by
the mob, as punishment for his crime.
Later life imprisonment was the pen
atty, and now the punishment fixed by
law is next, in the discretion of the
court, to that fixed for murder. Your
crime is the more dreadful because 1t
was committed upon your own daught-
era sweet little girl, motherless, who
had no one but you to whom she could
look for protection, whom you should
have tenderly cared for and whose
honor you should have guarded with
your own life, if necessary, instead Of
yourself debaunching her.
1t is a terrible thing to thus stand
before men, convicted of crime so
heinous; a crime offending not only all
laws, Divine, natural and human, but
utterly revolving and repugnant to all
natural inclinations and sensibilities.
You maintain your innocence of this
crime. 1t would be an awful thing
that you should be imprisoned for a
long term of years, or imprisoned at
all, il you are innocent of this crime.
You have mad fair trial before i'm
partial men, all reluctant to believe
that you committed the crime Of which
you have been convicted, and who no
doubt were inclined to sh you some
consideration by returning q verdict
for a lesser crime, had their consci-
ences, under the evidence and the in
structions of the court permitted them
so to do. You have been ably defend
ed by. counsel appointed by the court
to defend you, who has exercised all
his knowledge and experience in your
behalf. The case has been tried
throughout with unquestionable fair
ness and with the presumption Of in
snocence afforded by the law predomi-
nant, and, in the end, the twelve
jurors, sworn here solemnly to give
you fair trial and the benefit of rea-
sonable doubt, have pronounced you
guilty of the crime of rape, as charg-
ed. In this conclusion the court con-
ours. Upon the evidence in the case,
any other conclusion would have been
wrong and failure of Justice Either
you are guilty of the crime of which
you have been convicted or this little
girl, the most remarkable child-witness
/ have ever seen, is a willful liar
and that she has been untruthful in
any particular there is no suspicion in
the case.
The details Of your revolving prac-
tices ac given by her on the witness
stand could have been known to and
related only by enc whc had expert
enced what she told Of. She could not
have been coached to untruthfully tell
Of such things and have withstood the
ieng, searching and trying examination
undergone by her. The exceptionally
strong cross-examination demonstrated
the truth of her story,
1t is satisfactorily proven that you
not only debauched your own flesh and
blood, but that it was your design that
she should be mistress to you when
older. You certainly would have
thrown her into life Of shame and
dishonor. Words do not adequately
express disgust and condemnation for
such things, or for such state of mind.
L would not take time to speak them
upon this occasion were / speaking to
you alone, for while you, even in your
low and carnal state of mind must, in
very nature realize, in some degree,
the loathsomeness Of your acts and
your degradation I doubt whether you
comprehend the words am speaking.
! speak now to more than you !
speak Of these things to all people to
whom your acts and their conaemna-