David S . Terry David Smith Terry ( March 8 , 1823 – August 14 , 1889 ) was a California jurist and politician , who killed United States Senator David C . Broderick in the Broderick – Terry duel in 1859 . He died in 1889 , after being shot by a bodyguard of United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen J . Field . Biography . Terry was born in Todd County , Kentucky . From 1855 to 1859 he was a California State Supreme Court Justice , serving as the 4th Chief Justice of California from 1857 . Terry was always known for his fiery temper . In 1856 , he stabbed Sterling A . Hopkins , a member of the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance and was arrested , but was not tried . Terry was an advocate of the extension of slavery into California , and the slavery issue proved to be divisive to the California Democratic Party . Although he had been a close friend of David Broderick , he accused Broderick , a Free Soil advocate , of having engineered his loss for re - election in the 1859 state elections . Terry issued inflammatory comments at a state convention in Sacramento , which offended Broderick . On September 13 , 1859 , Terry and Broderick , having agreed to a duel , met just outside San Francisco city limits . Terry won the coin toss to select weapons , and chose pistols that had hair triggers . Broderick ' s discharged early , leaving him open for Terry ' s shot . At first Terry thought that he had only wounded Broderick , but the Senator died three days later . Although Terry was acquitted of murder , he left the state and went to serve in the 8th Texas Cavalry aka Terry ' s Texas Rangers of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War , and was wounded at Chickamauga . He came back to California in 1868 after the war was over , but was unable to re - enter politics . Terry became entangled in a mysterious divorce case in the 1880s . A young woman named Sarah Althea Hill claimed that she was the legal wife of silver millionaire William Sharon . Sharon denied that they had ever married , but Hill wanted a divorce and a share of Sharon ' s treasure . She lost her case and eventually wound up marrying Terry . The Terrys appealed , and United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen J . Field , a former friend of Broderick ' s , heard the case in 1888 as the senior justice of the Federal circuit court in California . Field ruled against Mr . and Mrs . Terry in a final appeal , and jailed them both on contempt of court . The Terrys vowed vengeance . On August 14 , 1889 David Terry assaulted Field at a train station in Lathrop , near Stockton , California . Field ' s bodyguard United States Marshal David Neagle ( formerly assigned to Tombstone , Arizona ) shot and killed Terry . Neagle was arrested by California authorities on a charge of murder . The United States secured the release of Neagle on a writ of habeas corpus . The issue was resolved by " In re Neagle " , 135 U . S . 1 ( 1890 ) , a United States Supreme Court decision that determined that the Attorney General of the United States had authority to appoint U . S . Marshals as bodyguards to Supreme Court Justices , and that Neagle had acted within the scope of his authority . Terry also took up the cause of the ' Widow Sanchez ' . Maria Encarnacion Ortega de Sanchez , the widow of a wealthy rancher , was being cheated by local authorities , including the Sheriff , William Roach , who took her fortune under the guise of guardianship . After kidnapping Roach with the help of a local gunslinger named Anastacio Garcia , they held Roach in a jail cell in Stockton until he agreed to release the widow ' s gold . But Roach had bribed a guard to ride to Monterey and urge Roach ' s family to hide the gold . The treasure was hidden somewhere in Carmel Valley by Roach ' s brother - in - law , Jerry MacMahon . MacMahon was killed in a barroom brawl before he could reveal the location of the money . With no more gold left to the widow , Terry lost interest in her case . Terry is buried at Stockton Rural Cemetery in Stockton . Sarah Terry became insane , and spent the rest of her life at the Stockton State Hospital for the insane , where she died in 1936 . She is buried in the same gravesite as her husband . Terry ' s first wife , Cornelia Runnels , is buried next to him .