The Sun. — 1841-08-12 (London, England)

CONVICTION FOR MURDER.  William Weyman was charged with the wilful murder of William Fisher, on the 17th of April last, at Yockington, in this county.  The deceased it appeared was a small farmer, residinr, upon his own land, at Auckley, and the prisoner lived near him. He had served 28 years in the Horse Guards, and was in the receipt of a pension for his services of ls. 4d. a day. On the Tuursday before the fatal occurrence took place which formed the subject of the present trial, Weyman went in company with two other persons to Bristol, to receive his arrears of pension, with which he returned to his lodging the same night. His landlady observed him soon after with a pistol, upon which her son (a little boy) asked him what he was going to do with it, to which he replied, " I am going to Auckley to shoot a horse for Mr. Millard, for it has got the staggers." At the time his appeared to be in liquor, but not so much so as he had been on several previous occasions. On his return, in about an hour, young Jefferies said, " Have you shot the horse ?" He said, "I have not ; he's bet • ter." On Saturday morning he got up about seven, He was quite sober then. Mrs. Jefferies's little girl noticed when he came down stairs that he had the pistol with him ; she thereupon said, " Are you going to shoot the horse again to-day?" He replied, "I am; he is a good deal worse to-day." About nine o'clock he left his lodgings, and was seen by several witnesses in the neighbourhood of the deceased's dwelling. One woman, at whose house he called on his way thither, stated that he told .her that he had been drinking gin all that morning, and that he had been looking for Wm. Fisher, either to butcher him or to shoot him. At this time he did not seem much in liquor. This witness had known the prisoner before he went into the army. She had also known his father and mother ; and, in reply to a question from :the prisoner's Counsel, stated that she had never seen anything at all incoherent in his manner, and had never heard that he had a wound in his head. She was surprised to hear his expression respecting William Fisher, as he was .. in general extremely civil to every one. • This witness's brother, who was a butcher, said that. the prisoner was in the habit of shooting beasts for him. The last he shot for him was on the Monday before Fisher's death, on which, and on every similar occasion, he was accustomed to use a pistol elonging to the butcher. It seemed that about eleven -o'clock on the Saturday already alluded to the prisoner, the deceased, and three other men, of the names of Elmes, Cullimore, and Knapp, were sitting together in a public-house kept by a person of the name of Thomas. Mr. Cullimore stated that Fisher and he were sitting upon a settle, on the opposite side;of it. The prisoner and the deceased had some conversation together on unimportant subjects, till a person of the name of Thomas Janett passed along the road in the front of the house, when the prisoner observed that he had, a few days before, delivered to Janett a letter containing a 501. note, on which the deceased said,. " That's a lie. The prisoner replied, " Had you said that out of doors you would never have kicked again." Deceased said again. "You're a liar," and repeated this observation several times, concluding with "You are the damnedest liar in England." -Upon this the prisoner, exclaimed, " That's enough," and immediately passed out through the back kitchen, having in his pocket a horse pistol at the time. In about o minutes he returned, and putting the pistol close to the.deceased's head fired, when he instantly fell, Witness then went out, not thinking that the deceased was killed, and on his retnrn found William Fisher on the ground with his jaw shattered, and in a dying state. After seine further evidence,  Mr. .IiLATING addressed the Jury in a very able manner on behalf of the prisoner,, and endeavoured to palliate his guilt upon the grounds of insanity. After which Mr. Justice COLTMAN summed up minutely the whole of the evidence, and The Jury almost immediately returned a verdict of Guilty. His LORDSHIP then put on the black cap, and passe d sentence of death upon the unhappy man, leaving him no hope of mercy in this world. The prisoner, who is a. fine athletic-looking man, remained wholly unmoved during the trial.