The Copper Chief Saloon Killing Goes to the Jury

After four days and two nights of testimony, the trial of James Murphy for the killing of Phil J. Dawes on July 5, 1894, was concluded and given to the jury at 11:50 last night. The jury was out for some time, as if discussing the points with one or more obstinate members of the twelve. At midnight, however, quiet reigned in the jury room, with every indication that no verdict would be reached before today.

Judge Humes adjourned court at 11:30 until tomorrow morning, but said that if the jury agreed upon a verdict, he would return to receive it. The evidence given yesterday in rebuttal and sur-rebuttal for both prosecution and defense occupied all day, and the case was not called closed until within a few minutes of 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The prosecution put in fifteen witnesses to prove good character and contradict some of the witnesses who had testified for the defense; the defense closed its side with five witnesses in rebuttal, all tending to weaken the testimony of George K. Gordon, the state’s principal witness.

To that end a new witness was found, literally at the eleventh hour: a bootblack named John Mills, who alleged that at the time the shot was fired Gordon was standing outside the saloon in a position where he could not have seen the shooting. The witness was subjected to a rigid cross-examination, which did not make him swerve from his original statement. A deposition was also introduced by the defense from George Wieland of Canada, which contradicted Gordon’s entire story. The prosecution answered with several witnesses to whom Gordon gave a history of the shooting immediately after its occurrence, principal among them City Attorney Melvin G. Winstock, who at the time of the shooting was a reporter on the Post-Intelligencer detailed to write an account of it. Mr. Winstock had been sick in bed for a week, but against the direction of his physician he answered the subpoena, though he had to be taken to the courthouse in a carriage.

George K. Gordon, the principal witness for the state, who had been held a prisoner for eight months pending this trial, was given his liberty yesterday afternoon. The defense opened the proceedings yesterday morning with Joseph W. Clark of Newcastle, the man to whose house Murphy’s stepson is alleged to have taken Gordon to “fix” him. Clark claimed that Gordon came to his house about 11:30 at night before the last trial to get money from him. The cross-examination failed to shake him.

The defense’s star witness, Mills, said he had a bootblack stand ten feet west of the Chief saloon. He testified that Gordon was standing outside the Copper Chief saloon with his back to the saloon, close to the door, talking with a man sitting on a beer barrel. At the crack of the gun, Gordon wheeled and rushed in front of the saloon door. Just as Gordon went in at the door, Murphy came out, and said to Mills, “Jack, Phil Dawes is shot; run for a policeman.” Mills then went to police headquarters and notified Cudihee. The cross-examination failed to shake him.

In his charge, Judge Humes told the jury that threats by Dawes toward Murphy and Dawes’s character could be considered on the question of who began the affray, but that threats were no excuse for the shooting. The state bore the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury retired at 11:30.