Miller v. Territory

• Decision Date: 02 February 1888
• Citation: 19 P. 50,3 Wash.Terr. 554
• Parties: MILLER v. TERRITORY.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

19 P. 50

3 Wash.Terr. 554

MILLER v. TERRITORY.

Supreme Court of Territory of Washington

February 2, 1888

Error to Third district court.

Indictment of George H. Miller for murder. Defendant brings error from a judgment of conviction of murder in the first degree.

Metcalfe & Rochester, for plaintiff in error

J T. Ronald, Pros. Atty., for the Territory.

LANGFORD J.

This is a case wherein plaintiff in error, as defendant, upon the verdict of the jury, was adjudged guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged. One of the errors is claimed to be that the court erred in overruling the motion for a new trial. Among the errors assigned are that the court erred in not sustaining the defendant's motion for a new trial, and certain erroneous instructions. The corpus delicti is well proven. The only question to be considered, as to the ruling upon motion for new trial, is whether the evidence shows that Miller committed the crime. The murder was the shooting of one George M. Coleman and a 16-year-old school-boy by the name of Patten. The last time these two persons were seen alive was when they started from Coleman's house, about half past 6 o'clock upon Monday morning, the 8th day of February, 1886. They started in a boat,-Coleman rowing on the front seat, and Patten on the back seat,-on a trip to Seattle. Their course lay westerly, around the head of Mercer's island, and thence along the western shore thereof. Not having been heard from, search was made; and upon the 12th, four days after they were missed, their boat was found, pulled up upon the beach, filled with water, and with rocks in the back part of the boat, with Coleman's coat in the boat, as well as his false teeth, and with a mismatched pair of oars near by. The point where the boat was found was about five miles from Coleman's, and near the houses of Bogart and Proctor, about 300 yards north of Bogart's house. To get to where it was, the boat had to pass the house of Bogart, which at the time was unoccupied. About a mile off, west of where its route would be across the lake, were the houses of Matheson and Wilson, in as plain sight and hearing as a mile of intervening water would allow. After finding the boat, as above mentioned, the search for the bodies was continued, and at a point about three miles south of where the boat was found the bodies were discovered. At this last point the bodies were found in the lake near the island, in about 15 feet of water, and two coats of Patten and other things were found there. Near this place were found the other two oars that belonged to the Coleman boat, mismatched, as were those that were found near the boat. The body of Coleman had been robbed of money and a gold watch, but Patten's body had not been robbed. Each body had two gunshot wounds. One wound in each of them would have been immediately mortal. The mortal wound received by Coleman was in the left temple; that of Patten, in the left side. These wounds could have been inflicted by shots from the island opposite to where the bodies were found, and, if inflicted while the deceased were rowing on their course, the shots must have been fired from the island, or from that direction. If the bodies fell instantly after these shots, as they must have done, then, after they fell, each was again shot. Coleman was, the second time after he fell, shot in the top of the head, a little on the right side, the ball running down. If the boat had continued its course, this shot must have come from a boat further from the shore than Coleman's, and from off the bow of Coleman's boat presuming that Coleman fell the natural way, which would be opposite from the blow of the first shot, or directly backwards. If, after the first shot, the boat had turned directly around, the second shot might have come from the island. If the shots were fired by the same person, some time must have intervened between the first and second shots. If the first shot came from shore, and the second shot from a boat further from shore than Coleman's, the shots may have been near together. The second shot which was received by Patten was in the back part of the right thigh, ranging upwards and forwards. The shot which made the wound must have been fired from a boat at the stern of the Coleman boat after Patten had fallen backwards. The first two shots that killed both may have been fired simultaneously; and the last two, a few moments afterwards, may have been fired simultaneously But the four shots could not have been fired simultaneously. If both sets of shots had been fired by the same person, there must have been sufficient time between them for a man, after he shot from shore, to have gotten into his boat, and gone out to the opposite side of Coleman's boat to deliver the second shots. The murder must have been committed by some person or persons having a boat, which, after the first shots, took such person or persons to Coleman's boat; or the murder must have been committed by at least one on shore and the other in a boat. After the last shots were fired, the murderers must have gotten into Coleman's boat, and he or they must have thrown the bodies overboard in haste, leaving Coleman's overcoat in the boat, and throwing Patten's coats overboard. There must have been two oars there thrown overboard, and two remained; and, as the oars left in the boat and the two thrown overboard were mismated, there was great haste. If there had been but one man concerned in the murder, then he must have fired two shots, and killed both of the deceased; then entered his boat, and gone around Coleman's boat and delivered the two shots; jumped from his own boat into Coleman's, and thrown out the bodies; then hitched the boats together, and rowed one and towed the other the three miles past Bogart's house; then left the Coleman boat, throwing the oars thereof ashore; and then he must have gotten into his own boat, and rowed away. A good rower can row the three miles in 44 minutes, if he has nothing to tow; with another boat in tow it could not be made in less than an hour. And add to this the time spent in robbing the body of Coleman and throwing the bodies overboard, it would take probably an hour and a half to do the whole thing, and at the time Coleman's boat was landed it would be at least half past 8 o'clock.

To obtain light upon this dark subject, it would have been natural, when the Coleman boat was first discovered, to have made inquiries at Proctor's, and near which the boat was discovered; but there is no evidence that such inquiry was thus made. When the bodies were found, it would have been natural to inquire at Matheson's and Wilson's houses, which were across the lake, a mile from the place of the murder. This was done. Mrs. Matheson testifies that she saw, on Monday morning, the 8th, at about 7 o'clock, coming around the point of the island opposite her place, a white boat, as it looked. Shortly afterwards she heard shots towards or on the island; there were three or four of them, she thinks four shots, which came from the island or point. Quite a little while after the shots, it (the boat) came right around, but not in the direct route to Seattle. It looked like the boat was coming direct to our place, and was half way over. This Matheson place is about a mile from the island, and, if this white boat was Coleman's, it went west one-half mile, then back the half mile, and thence three miles, to where it was found. Witness continues: "The shots were at seven o'clock, or a little after. Saw but one boat." If this is true, then, after the killing, the murderers left their own boat, and got into Coleman's, or one boat was towed. Witness continues: "It is about two miles from our house to the island." If this is true, the white boat, being Coleman's boat, went five miles after the murder. Witness continues: "I saw the boat three times; the second time about ten minutes after the first. When coming towards our place, it looked black. Five or ten minutes after the second time saw it the third time. When it turned back towards the island, it looked white." "There were no intervals between the shots. They followed so quickly that you could not distinguish the intervals between them." If these were the four shots that went into the bodies of the deceased, they could not have been all fired from the shore, for the situation of the wounds disprove this, but must have been fired from different sides of Coleman's boat.

This is all the direct evidence of the facts of the shooting and of the persons who committed the crime, and this witness could not identify the persons, nor the number thereof, because of her distance from the scene. Proctor, who lives a few hundred yards from where the boat was found, testifies he left home about 7 o'clock that morning. Neither Proctor nor wife saw anything of the transaction on Monday morning. Two days before the murder, the defendant, Coleman and several persons were subp naed to go to Seattle, and be before the grand jury there on the morning of the murder at 10 o'clock. It is not exactly proven, but it may be inferred, that each party subp naed knew that the others were, and that each would start along the lake on the route to Seattle in time to reach there at 10 o'clock; but this is not introduced to show that Coleman was waylaid, but only to show what the animus of defendant was against Coleman deceased. Next it is attempted to establish that, the day before the killing, defendant was on the waters of the lake near where the killing was done. What could have been the object of defendant's being there does not appear, as he would have had no occasion to have familiarized himself with the locality, for he was well acquainted with that without inspection. The...