The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1917-05-19
IMIsTRETTAs ACQUITTED OF MURDER,
Found Not Guilty By Jury after Brief Deliberaton-Plea
of self-Defense, in Connection with Alleged "Black
Hand" Threat Gains Acquittal for Accused Father
and Son-TraI Notable One.

taortheast corner of Railroad avenue
| and Charles street; heard a shot, and,
| looking in that direction, saw B. Mis-
tretta and Joe Spampinato facing
each other, about 5 feet apart; af-
forwards heard three or four more
gun shots and about the same num-
| Der Of revolver shots.
Mrs. BetZ said she was sitting at a
desk. in her hall when she heard wo-
mans. scream, Immediately followed
| by shot She ran to the dormer
window in her parlor and saw Joe
| Spampinato lying on the ground, with
B.. Mistretta and his son, Gaetano,
standing over him and shooting into
his fallen body. B. Mistretta kicked
| the corpse before walking away.
DR.. Brumfeld gave description Of
| Spampinato's wounds. 4 pistol bull
| let had entered the left side, below
and to the rear of the heart, penetrat-
| ing both lungs and lodging in the flesh
| on the right side, from whence. it was
extracted. The right hand was badly
torn by several buck-shot wounds,
main artery having been severed,
and the left leg was shattered near
the ankle by bullets of the same cali
Der. A wound in the neck evidently
made with sharp instrument had
severed the jugular vein and carotid
artery. Any of the wounds would
have caused death, those in the body
and neck being necessarily fatal.
| On cross-examination, counsel for the
defense endeavored to ascertain from
Dr.. Brumfeld whether the buckshots
which fractured the left leg may not
have been fired from the front, but
1.-THE witness insisted that the penetra-
ton was from the rear. As to the
other wounds he was not ableto say.
After the examination of these
/ witnesses, at about 3 o'clock Wednes-
day afternoon, the jury was taken to
the scene Of the crime and an investi-
cation made Of the surroundings, par
| ticularly with reference to the posi-
ton Of the several eye-witnesses, at
the time of the shooting. Upon re-
! turning to the courtroom the district
attorney recalled Miss Savoia and
Mrs. Betz to elucidate d. few points
in connection with their testimony,
after which the state rested.
The first witness for the defense
| was Charles Jackson, a negro, who as
serted that he was standing at the
Mistretta corner on the morning of
| the tragedy, and that when SPAN
pinato approached in his wagon +.
Mistretta was rolling a. barrel of
trash through his back gate to the
bridge which spans the gutter at that
point; that Spampinato stopped his
wagon near the bridge, and, saying
something to Mistretta in Italian,
arose from his seat and made a mo-
ton toward his right hip pocket, taka
+ ing something therefrom which the
witness could not identify. Mistret-
lta; according to the negro, walked
Unto his back yard, reappearing in a
moment with shotgun in his hand.
\ In thesmeantirne Spampinato, so Jack
son alleged, had stepped down from
his wagon and advanced to the horses
head. When the two men faced each
other and Mistretta raised his gun,
jackson declares he retreated around
the corner. He heard a shot almost
Immediately afterward, and in reply
to a question by the district attorney
said it sounded to him like the dis
charge of shotgun.
Pasquale Mistretta, a brother of
the accused, was called next. He was
in bed with a nervous attack the morn
ing of the killing and knew none of
the details. When questions were
put to MIN concerning the shooting
at the Mistretta store the night of
April IL, long argument ensued be-
tween the attorneys as to the admis
sibility of certain evidence in this
connection. The witness was finally
Withdrawn and B. Mistretta was plac-
ed on the stand Another lengthy de-
bate was engaged in between the dis
triet attorney and counsel for the de-
Tense, concerning the introduction of
testimony tending to show that bad
blood existed between Spampinato
and the. Mistrettas, that threats
against B. Mistretta had been made
by deceased, and that on two occa-
sions prior to the killing Spampinato
had fired upon the Mistrettas The
court at first ruled the evidence mad
Missile, but when the defense attor-
neys made the statement that the fact
of the previous shootings had been
made known to the sheriff and that
no steps had been taken toiapprehend
the guilty party, Judge Gilbert ores
vised his decision and stated if this
could be proved he would permit all
the evidence to, be presented. Dis
5trict Attorney Guion coneurred in this,
ruling, adding that in justice to the,
sheriff; he. demanded that the defense.
proceed to substantiate its, assertion.
c B. Mistretta was permitted to. rrerr
sumo his testimony, but had not made
much progress when the. case was. un-.
texpectedly halted through, the, failure,
of, a defense witness, Freddie, Bour-
.geois,, to swear to the authorship Of
certain threatening letters rec eived BY.
iMistretta and alleged to have. been
written by Spampinato. This took
the defense by surprise and they, re-
y a continuance of the, case.
until 40 o'clock a. m. NThursday.
which was granted by the court. .Is 3s
Joe Compagna, the, first witness
placed on the stand next morning,
enabled the defense to get one o.. the
s"tBlack Hand" letters in question be-
fore the jury by identifying the hand,
writing as that Of Spampinato. The
communication made I1;nand upon
Mistretta for the sum Of $500, Other
wise Marianina S." and warned the
recipient to keep silent concerning
the matter, declaring that if he failed
70 do CO Hnnn oe 81. ELL ,nn,r 41,1 80.