State v. Terrio

• Decision Date: 01 July 1903
• Citation: 98 Me. 17,56 A. 217
• Parties: STATE v. TERRIO.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

56 A. 217

98 Me. 17

STATE

v. TERRIO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

July 1, 1903.

(Official.)

Appeal from Supreme Judicial Court, Somerset County.

Alexander Terrio was convicted of murder, and moves for new trial for newly discovered evidence. New trial granted.

The defendant was found guilty of the murder of Mathias Pare, March 11, 1901, at or near Misery Stream, between Brassua Lake and the Canadian Pacific Railroad, by the jury at the following September term of this court in Somerset county. He filed a motion for a new trial at the same term, which, having been heard by the presiding justice, was overruled, and he thereupon appealed to the next term of the law court in 1902, where the case was entered and continued until the December term. In the meantime, at the September term of that county, the defendant filed a further motion to have the verdict set aside on the ground of newly discovered evidence. The evidence introduced in pursuance of this motion was taken out before the justice presiding at that term, and is now considered, together with the evidence introduced at the trial before the jury.

Argued before WISWELL, C. J., and WHITEHOUSE, STROUT, SAVAGE, PEABODY, and SPEAR, JJ.

Geo. M. Seiders, Atty. Gen., and Geo. w. Gower, Co. Atty., for the State.

D. J. McGillicuddy and F. A. Morey, for defendant.

WHITEHOUSE, J. At an adjourned session of the September term of the Supreme Judicial Court in Somerset county, in the year 1901, a verdict of guilty was rendered by the jury against the defendant, Alexander Terrio, upon an indictment against him for the murder of Mathias Pare on the 11th day of March of that year. Thereupon, at the same term of court, the defendant filed a motion to have the verdict set aside as against the evidence, accompanied by a certificate of his counsel that the motion was made in good faith, and that the same was necessary for the protection of his rights. This motion was overruled by the court, and the defendant appealed from the decision of the presiding justice to the next law court. The case was entered at the next term of the law court in 1902, and continued until the next December term. In the meantime, at the next term of the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Somerset, in September, 1902, the defendant filed a further motion to have the verdict set aside on the ground of newly discovered evidence. The evidence introduced in pursuance of this motion was taken out before the Justice presiding at that term. The evidence alleged to have been newly discovered, as well as that introduced at the trial, is now before the court.

On the 11th day of April, 1901, the dead body of Mathias Pare, a young French Canadian, who had for several years been accustomed to work as a woodsman in the forests of Maine during the winter season, was found by the side of a tote road on the banks of Misery Stream, between Brassua Lake and the Canadian Pacific Railway, about a mile and a half from Asquith Station. The body was fully clothed, and nearly covered with brush and snow, but the partial melting of the snow had exposed a portion of the coat and the fingers of one hand. About a rod distant a hat and a woodsman's pack were found. The left pocket of the trousers was torn and turned inside out, and within two or three inches from the end of this pocket a cartridge shell of a 30-30 Winchester rifle was found lying on the snow. It was picked up and placed on the breast of the body, where it remained until the body was removed on the 14th of April. This cartridge shell exactly fitted the chamber of the respondent's 30-30 Winchester rifle, and by reason of the distinctive marks alleged to have been made by the firing pin of the rifle upon the primer or cap of the shell at the time the cartridge was exploded, as will be hereafter more fully shown, became evidence of vital importance, tending to connect the respondent with the commission of the crime. On the 12th day of May following another cartridge shell was found by George I. Peary about 50 feet from the place where the body lay; but it was shown by actual experiment, as the defense confidently asserts, that this cartridge did not fit the Terrio rifle, and hence became of possible significance in behalf of the respondent.

From the subsequent examination of the body made at the autopsy, it appeared that Pare had received a rifle bullet through the chest, and another through the right arm. A fragment of a leaden bullet, with a small piece of a steel jacket, was also discovered in a wound in the left arm. The state claimed that all of these wounds might have been made by bullets and steel jackets from a 30-30 rifle. The respondent claimed that the hole through the right arm was larger than the other, and suggested that more than one rifle may have been used. All the bones of the skull were broken and crushed as if by a blow from some heavy instrument, like the back of an ax or the butt of a rifle stock. There was also an incised wound on the neck, which might have been made with the narrow blade of a pocketknife. At the time the clothing was removed from the body, a metallic case of a bullet from an exploded cartridge, and apparently a 30-30 rifle cartridge, dropped out of the clothing.

From the time of these discoveries, it was never in question between the state and the respondent that Mathias Pare came to his death by violence and criminal agency. At the trial the corpus delicti was not in controversy. There was equal moral certainty that he was murdered on the 11th day of March, between the hours of 10 and 12 in the forenoon, one month prior to the discovery of the body.

On the banks of Moose river, between Brassua and Moosehead Lakes, is a primitive settlement, known as "Rockwood," comprising 16 houses within the limits of a little more than two miles from Rockwood post office, on the shore of Moosehead Lake, including those of George Ritchie, Willie Butler, Felix Butler, Vede Gilblair, the respondent, Alexander Terrio, John Raspberry, Fred Parent, Joseph Murray, and Sylvere Gaudet. During the winter preceding the murder, Pare had been at work for Gaudet in the woods north of Moose river; and on Saturday morning, March 9th, he received from his employer $1.50 in cash, and a duebill for $100.58, in full settlement for his winter's wages. The same day both Gaudet and Pare left the camp in the woods, and returned to Gaudet's home, at the Rockwood settlement, which was left in charge of George Vigue during the absence of Gaudet and his wife in the woods. Here Pare remained Saturday night. Sunday morning, March 10th, he went to Kineo, a little more than two miles from Gaudet's, and got his duebill cashed; receiving therefor $100.50 in money, a leather wallet, and a quart bottle of whisky. Returning, he arrived at Gaudet's house about half past 10 o'clock in the forenoon; and there and at the house of Joseph Murray, with another bottle of whisky furnished by Murray, he passed the afternoon and evening in drinking and convivial merriment in the company of Joseph Murray, Fred Pooler, George Vigue, and Joseph McDonald; Gaudet himself being present at the "early feast," but not at the "late carouse." Several times during both afternoon and evening Pare exhibited his wallet, and, to some extent, exposed his money in the presence of Murray and others. Terrio was not present in this company, either in the afternoon or evening, but he was acquainted with Pare, for he worked with him for Gaudet the previous winter of 1900, and he knew that he had just come out of the woods in the spring of 1901, for he met him in company with George Vigue Sunday afternoon, March 10th, and exchanged a few words of friendly greeting with him. There is no evidence that Pare in that brief interview made any reference to his wallet or his money, or his intended departure for Canada the following day. This appears to have been the only time that Terrio saw Pare while he was at Rockwood settlement, on Moose river, during Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before his departure.

Pare spent the remainder of that Sunday night at Gaudet's house in company with George Vigue, and at half past 7 o'clock the next morning, March 11th, he set out on foot for Asquith Station, about seven miles away, carrying a canvas grip or valise and a woodsman's pack; intending to take the train there on his homeward journey to Canada. Between 8 and half past 8 o'clock he called at the house of Fred Parent, and obtained from Mrs. Parent an old envelope, in which he placed a portion of his money, leaving the balance of it in the wallet. The envelope, with the money in it, he placed inside of his sweater; and the wallet, with the rest of the money, he returned to his trousers pocket. He next called at the house of Willie Butler, another resident on the road to Asquith, and remained there "between half an hour or an hour," until Fred Parent, who was hauling rocks to the lake, came along with his team and gave him a ride to the "piers." There he left the team at half past 10 or a quarter before 11 o'clock, and continued his journey towards Asquith on foot; taking the shorter road, known as the "Cookee's Path," according to the directions given him by Parent. As far as disclosed by the evidence, this was the last that was ever seen of Pare alive. Nothing further was known or heard in regard to his movements or his fate until his body was discovered on the tote road, a mile and a half from his destination at Asquith, except by the person or persons who committed the murder, or who were in some way cognizant of it. It has been noticed that the woodsman's pack was found near the body April 11th, but the canvas grip appears to have been picked up near the scene of the crime on the 1st day of April by Fred Pooler, and placed on the team of Wm. Butler, who was moving his goods from Rockwood settlement to Asquith Station. It was carried by Butler to the home of George Ritchie, of Rockwood, about 2 1/2...