The Potteries Examiner : — 1878-11-02 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE MURDER OF A FAMILY IN  MONDIOUTHSHIRN:.  SENTENCE OF DEATH.  At dm Gloucestershire Assizes, on Wednesday, before Lord Justice Bramwell, Joseph Garcia (21), a Spanish ! sailor, was charged with the murder of Thomas Wetkits, his wife, and three children, at Llangibby, Monmouthshire. on the 16th July last. The case presented by the prosecution, and which rested on circumstantial evidence, woo 1. follows Watkins was a labourer, who ! lived with his wife and three children in a small cot. tage on the outskirts of the village of Llangibby, and on the main road from Usk to Newport. Os the 16th July Watkins bad been working in company with a lad living near, and he and his family were seen about in the evening. Early next morning the lad called for Watkins to walk with him to their work, but on get. ting inside the gate at the bottom of a garden in front of the cottage, he saw Watkins lying laud on the ground, apparently having died from a stab in the throat. The lad raised an alarm, and on the neighbours going to the spot they found not only the dead body of Watkins, but further up the garden they found that of his wife. Near the body of the wife were signs of a struggle, and cuts on her hands, neck, and face inch! rated that she had struggled with her assailant. On ! the cottage being mitered, it was found to be full of smoke. The windows were opened, and some tiles ' taken from the roof, and in an upper room were found ! the dead bodies of Watkins three children. Two of the bodies were on the bed the other, that of the elder girl, was beneath the bed. It was discovered that the cottage had been sot on fire in two or three places, and fire was still smonidering in the bedroom, and the bodies of the children were considerably charred. Several witnesses were called to implicate the prisoner. On the morning of the 16th he was discharged from the County Goal at Usk, and left before the warden could give him the money which would have paid hie fare to Newport. During the morning he was seen near a stile on the high road from Usk to Newport, and about n hundred yards on the Newport side of Watkins cottage. He was seen in the same locality about four o'clock in the afternoon, then lying on the ground, apparently asleep. Between seven and eight o'clock in the evening he called at the house of a Mrs. Watkin, and got a drink of water and asked his way to Newport. Nothing more was known of the prisoner until midnight on the following day, when he was seen entering the town of Newport carrying two bundles. He inquired for and was directed to the railway station, and while waiting for the train be was arrested. On him was I told a number of articles, many , of which were identified as having belonged to Watkins and his family, a daughter who was from home at the time of the murder, being called as a witness to this qurstion. The works of an old-fashioned clock had been taken away, and some clock works, which, however, were not positively identified, were lotted in one of the prisoner's bundles. In the same bundle were found a pillow and sonic wearing apparel, whieli were identi. fled as having belonged to the murdered family. He was carrying, a loaf, a mark on which corresponded with a mark in the tin in which Watkin's brea.l was baked. At the time prisoner left the gaol he was wearing a pair of trousers, a guernsey, and a loose smock, and an old pair of boots. When arrested he was wearing a pair of Wiitkins's boots, and also a pair of Watkins's troimers over his own pair, the latter being wet in the lower part: ; his shirt had hloori stains upon it, although when he left the gaol it Mtn perfectly clean.—The Judge briefly summed up the evidence, and the jury, without re. tiring from their box, at OIDeP returned a verdict of imily.—Lord Justice Mummy than passed rentence of death in the usual form, mblitar that he should follow his custom of making no comment upon it.—The prisoner preserved a stolid demeanour throughout, and when the senteneo was communicated to him walked quietly from the dock.