The Alaska citizen., 1917-04-23
|. COYETTE IS CONVICTED OF
 LESSER CRIME

tained in the indictment on which | the defendant was tried was shoot ing with intent to kill, wound or maim, but the court. in its instruc- tions to the jury. stated that d yer diet for the lesser crime could be
 returned The jury sitting on the l trial was composed of Roy Judkins
 Dave Leyake, J. H. Bender, Frank | Hopkins, Andy Logstrup, Jud Will l Hanson, J. F. Lytle August Bos
 trom, F. W. Elliott, Anton Maser, D.
 J. Fairburn and C. A. Darr.
 i The law gives wide latitude oi
 punishment for conviction for as sault with a dangerous weapon. The | convicted one may be sentenced to | from six months to ten years in the penitentiary or from one year to
 one month in jail or by a fine of
 not less than s100 nor more than | $1,000, all at the discretion of the court.
 | The ,dse against GOyeJte was very l lengthy, having started early last week. The taking of evidence was
 finished Monday evening, and all ot
 the time of the court yesterday wa | taken up by the arguments of thl
 attorneys before the jury. The in
 structions of the court were given
 to the jury at about 10 o'clock last
 night, and the verdict was returned 1 shortly after II o'clock.
 The defense made was self de 1 fense. The defendant at all times l admitted that he did the shooting
 with which he is charged when he l shot Dick Creighton, once through
 the neck and again through the arm | but contended that the shooting was justified on the ground of self de | fense. He claimed, in his testimony that he did the shooting only after double-barreled shotgun had been drawn on him, his weapon being an | ordinary .22 calibre rifle and not a
 high powered gun. as was first ] thought
 A conspiracy to defraud Goyette
 out of bis half of a seyen-eighths
 interest in the Mohawk group O. | quartz claims at the head of Cleary
 creek was also charged by the de
 fense Dick Creighton. Martin Smith, | Leoni Loutre and Elsa Peterson were
 accused of being the conspirators. The evidence of the defense at
 the trial showed that Goyette had
 agreed to deed half of his interest
 the condition that she become his
 wife. They came to town from | Skoogey Gulch on July 8 last in company with Dick Creighton and
 Elsa Peterson, who is now Creigh- ] tons wife, and a deed to what he supposed to be the interest he had agreed upon was given by Goyette
 to the Loutre woman, according to l {, la af InFn | e
 stated on the stand, however, that
 the deed involved all of Goyette's
 holdings unknown to him, an error | having been made in the transfer in
 strument by the notary who did the
 work. It was also stated that Coy
 cite deeded away all of his property, not knowing that he was doing sO
 and that he went out of town on
 July 6 without any of the property
 of which he had before been pos l sessed.
 It was claimed by the defense
 that Goyette did not know that he
 was dispossessed when he went from the Newsboy mine, where he was
 living, down to Skoogey Gulch on l the afternoon of July 8, with his .22
 rifle on his arm, presumably to get
 tent which he had there, and
 which was located near the house
 where Creighton was living with the two women. The Loutre woman, in
 the meantime, according to the evi dence adduced at the trial by the defense, had refused to keep her
 part of the contract and marry Coy
 cite. It was while he was approach | ing the gulch that shotgun was
 drawn on him, according to Coy
 cites testimony, by one of the wO- | men, and it was then that he began
 shooting, one of the bullets taking
 effect in Creighton's neck when he
 was running toward the house in an
 attempt to secure the shotgun. | It was claimed that the Loutre
 woman, in the meantime, or after
 the arrest and preliminary hearing