Phillips

Information for murder. Verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree and judgment ordering imprisonment in state’s prison for term of fifty years.

The defendant, the man whom he killed, Jim Alonzo, and all the witnesses who testified, except the officers and the complaining witness, were California Indians. The complaining witness, who is a Mexican and the son in law of the deceased, was the only witness, other than the officers, who could make himself fully understood in English; the others being assisted more or less by an interpreter who was sworn to interpret from English into Indian and from Indian into English. These Indians and the complaining witness were all staying at a sheep-shearing camp at the time of the killing of Jim Alonzo. The day of the occurrence, August 22, 1909, was Sunday, and some or all of these Indians had been to one of the neighboring towns and returned to camp toward night. The defendant and his wife were the last to reach camp, arriving about dusk or a little after dark, the former bringing with him some whisky. The deceased immediately upon defendant’s arrival asked him for a drink, which was freely given, the complaining witness and another…