LEGAL INCIDENTS. IX. THE BEST WITNESS. By J. W. Donovan. THERE is scarcely a lawyer of any practice who cannot relate cases of circumstantial evidence, of convictions of. innocent men, of hair-breadth escapes, of romantic incidents. This case is a com bination of all these elements in one. In a little hamlet near Socoro, in the early eighties, lived a family of New Mexicans who frequently quarrelled over their drinks and drank over their quarrels, to the disgrace of the settlement. Threats of violence and actual violence had more than once been witnessed; and the sudden disappearance of Agnes Shapero, with the arrest of her husband for her mur der, soon after confirmed the belief that the guilty party was in prison. On his hands were deep scratches, and marks of a quarrel, and a sharp encounter. On his axe were stains of blood; in his pos session was a torn under- vest of a woman. The tragedy had occurred after dark, as the sounds of a quarrel had reached the ears of many neighbors, who had heard such disputes too often to take much note of them. To add to the interest of all, was the find ing of the woman's body in the Rio Grande River near by, not long after. The burial, the partial identification, and even the guilty actions of the accused, tended to confirm the theory of deliberate murder. The prisoner's counsel had but one defence, and clung to it, — mistaken identity of the person, — or the body of the person mur
dered, — for the remains were somewhat blackened and doubtful of recognition. The sounds of the conflict, the previous conten tions, the disappearance of the murdered woman, were clearly established. The ac cused was almost hopeless, for even he be lieved he was guilty. So guilty and halting was his statement that his counsel dared not call him as a wit ness; and the arguments had well advanced, when a rustle of excitement occurred near the door, and a woman hurriedly entered and rapidly walked forward in sight of the jury, and was quickly recognized as the very victim who was believed to have been mur dered, and who in a few broken words re lated how she had fled the country into Old Mexico, and hearing of the trial returned to the relief of her husband. On taking the stand " in her own behalf," she testified that she and her husband, on the night in question, had quarrelled over their drinks, and she had rushed into the river to escape her enraged partner, who madly followed her, and seized her, and held her under water till he believed her to be dead; and when she regained consciousness, she escaped into Mexico. Without this witness the prisoner must have been convicted, and surely hanged, and to cap all, would have gone to his death of disgrace with the belief that he had actually killed his wife as the circumstances indicated, and would have confessed to the crime of murder from the gallows.
