Trial of Thomas Powell for Murder

Trial of Thomas Powell for Murder.

The trial of Thomas Powell, indicted for the murder of a Chinaman named Achun, at Alder Creek, in Mississippi Township, on the 14th of July last, took place yesterday in the District Court, before Judge Monson. J. F. Hardy (District Attorney) and W. S. Long appeared for the prosecution; E. Baldwin and R. Sunderland, Esqs., were assigned by the Court for the defense. A jury was empaneled [names printed in the column; several are partly illegible].

[Witness—name not caught], cross-examined.—Found the body in the path, about ten feet from the wagon-track, on the road from Sacramento to Mormon Island; the feet lay across the path; it was over one hundred feet from any cabin. Miners generally quit work about the time it was found—about [nine] o’clock. Worked within a circle of some hundred yards of the spot; saw no one about at the time. The purse was unbuttoned; the shirt pulled up around [the body]. Did not examine the purse; others did and said it was empty. The pick-handle was found some ten or fifteen feet from the body, from the main road toward the creek; the blood was nearer the larger end, within about one foot; the stick was whittled near the center, and hacked on the larger end.

J. S. Kelly, sworn.—Lived on Alder Creek at the time of the murder; knew defendant. Deceased was killed on the evening of the 14th July; heard of it about dusk. Saw defendant several times that day, the last time about fifteen minutes subsequent to the murder. Deceased was killed below Yarbrough’s; defendant was coming from that direction. On the evening of the 12th July saw the defendant in the China village; heard him say that if he found two Chinamen he was “bound to kill them.” When I next saw him he said he was on a hunt for them, or looking after them; he had a pick-handle in his hand.

Cross-examined.—He did not say what Chinamen he threatened; I heard he had had a difficulty with two. I live about twenty-five yards from Yarbrough’s, and about a quarter of a mile from the scene of the murder. Between sundown and dark I saw Powell passing; he was alone and walking in the public road. The place is tolerably thickly settled—four or five cabins within a circle of one hundred feet—and a good many Chinamen about there. I last saw him, previous to the killing, between one and two o’clock in the afternoon at the China village; he said the Chinamen had been working in his claim; that he went and ordered them off, when two pitched into him; that he was bound to fight his way through if he could not have justice done him by the miners. [Further answer partly illegible.]

Santon Myers, sworn.—Knew the defendant; was present at the place of the killing shortly after; saw the pick-handle about [so long]; he was standing by the body where the front of a cabin had been; the body was about fifteen or eighteen steps off. [Describes seeing defendant near the scene soon after the alarm was given.] The murder was at Alder Creek above Yarbrough’s; I saw the defendant before sunset, and again after dark near the place. [Remainder indistinct.]

Augustus Caldwell, sworn.—Was informed of the murder in the evening of the 14th, and went up and examined the body. The blow had been struck across the back of the head; the skull was broken through a large portion of the calvarium; the broken bones showed cutting as by some edged instrument. There was another deep wound about two inches long near the ear. I should judge the wounds were made by the edge of a pick-handle or similar tool. The body lay near the road; blood and brain-matter were visible on the ground. [More medical description follows.]

[Other witnesses—names partially illegible.]—Testimony as to seeing defendant on the road from the direction of the China village; statements that defendant had had a quarrel with Chinamen about a mining claim; that he had a pick-handle; that shots were not heard; and that the deceased was unarmed. [Several brief cross-examinations omitted where illegible.]

[Court—after arguments.]—The Court instructed the jury upon the degrees of homicide, and as to the effect of threats previously made by a defendant toward a class of persons, and the bearing of circumstantial evidence. The jury retired at about [8] o’clock. [Remainder of proceedings in the column not fully legible in the image.]