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SUPREME COURT.
Monday, 18th November.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR A. G. WISE (ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE),
FORGERY.
Lau Man Che was indicted on five counts for forgery, the document involved being a promis- sary note for $500. He pleaded not guilty on all the counts:
The following jury was empanelled:-J. Lee, V., C. Herbst, J. E. Lee, N. G. Marques, P. F. da C. Prata, D. Benjamin, and A. E. Asgar.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
the second with wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. It would be for the jury to say, when they had heard the evidence, which of the two things the prisoner meant to do when he stabbed Madame de Zarza, if they found that he did stab her. Mr. Slade detailed the case as it has already appeared in these columns, and said that practically the only defence offered by the prisoner was that Madame de Zarza first stabbed him and then herself. Evidence, however, would be adduced to show that it was physically impossible for her to do so.
On the conclusion of counsel's address, the heaving of evidence was proceeded with, and the case afterwards adjourned until ten o'clock this morning.
Tuesday, 19th November.
[November 23, 1901.
The Acting Attorney-General in opening the case said that the first witness whom he should call was Cheung Chan Lak, a man who had taken some part in the affair and had turned King's evidence. That witness would tell the jury that he was a shrimper living at Capsni mun and that on the 11th of August about 9 o'clock in the morning the first prisoner Kwok Tak Kang invited him to take part in an attack upon a boat. That conversation took place in the first prisoner's house at Capsuimun. The latter said, “Attack the boat, there are a few hundred or a thousand dollars on it."
"Can you soner also said to the witness, get some men ?" meaning apparently men to Witness replied, help in the meditated attack.
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Pri-
No." It appeared that while that conversation took place the second prisoner Kwok Tsat Po was also present. About an hour afterwards Kwok Tak brought the third prisoner Chan Yat
BEFORE HIS HONour T. SercomBE SMITH to the matshed, but no conversation of any moment
(ACTING PUIsne Judge).
THE FILIPINO STABBING CASE.
The hearing of the evidence for the prosecu. tion having been concluded, the prisoner Roxas proceeded to call in his witnesses for the dofence. Early in the proceedings, however, his Lordship ruled that certain such evidence was irrelevant and therefore could not be heard, This considerably shortened the trial, and by half-past eleven his Lordship had proceeded to sum up.
The jury afterwards retired to consider their verdict, and after an absence of ten minutes returned into Court, when the foreman intimated that by a majority of 5 to 2 they found the prisoner guilty on the first count and unani- mously guilty on the second couut.
His Lordship asked if the prisoner had any. thing to say why sentence should not be passed upon him. The reply, given with outstretched hands, was that if he were a guilty man, why All the was not he arrested at the time? witnesses for the defence were in favour of was at their Madame de Zarza and he mercy. If the jury said he was guilty, what could he do?
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The Hon. H. E. Pollock, K.C., Acting Attorney-General, who was intructed by Mr.
took place between these two. The first prisoner F. B. L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor, said the
on the same day seemed to have gone to Tai- complainant in this case was until lately a
koktsui by himself in a boat, returning about resident in Amoy, and met the defendant in
midnight on the morning of the 12th. About Manila some time last year. In March of
noon of that day the three prisoners and Cheung this year he came over to Hongkong with the intention of starting business here. The
Chan Luk went in the first prisoner's boat to defendant followed him shortly afterwards,
Taikoktsui, arriving there between one and two o'clock in the afternoon. There they anchored and was informed by the complainant of the latter's intention to open a business.
close to the boat which was subsequently at- On 6th March the complainant, accompanied
tacked. They spent the night there. On the by the defendant, went to a shop and ordered
following day, the boat which was attacked sailed away at 2 o'clock in the afternoon in the four chops which were to be used in his business,
direction of Capsuimun and shortly afterwards Of those four chops the important one for the purpose of the case was the “ borrowing money
the prisoners got their boat under weigh and chop." On three subsequent days the complain.
followed. There were altogether six men on the ant and defendant again visited the shop and
latter craft. The prisoners' boat did not follow ordered one chop on each occasion. The com-
the other right into Capsuimun but anchored The second prisoner in an adjacent bay. plainant started business on 21st March, there being only himself and another man as partners.
went overland to see where the objective of The capital of the business amounted to $3,000.
their attack was anchored and coming back $2,000 of this sum being contributed by the
reported her to be lying near the Customs complainant and the remaining $1,000 by his
House. It should be mentioned that the pri- soners' boat had towed a dinghy all the way. partner. At the outset the defendant was engaged as a shop.coolie at a wage of $10 a month,
About 11 p.m. on 13th August the occupants of the pursuers' boat got into the dinghy and and continued in that employment until 1st May, when he was discharged by the complainant, who
rowed. round to the bay where the boat which they designed to attack was anchored. Accord- had found fault with him a few days previouly On 3rd May the complainant received a His Lordship-I think the jury have come ing to the evidence, three of them were armed→ letter from Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist, as to a very sound conclusion. The offence for the first and second prisoners with revolvers and solicitors for the defendant, in which letter the which you are convicted is very heavily punished the third with a knife. When their boat neared allegation was made that the defendant had-in fact, to the extent of penal servitude for the other the second prisoner got into the water put $600 into the complainant's business. On life, and the lowest sentence I can pass is ten with a knife with the view of cutting the the following days the complainant wrote years' imprisonment, with hard labour, upon the anchor rope of the latter. There were a good denying the allegation, and on 28th May be first count, and five years' imprisonment, also many boats anchored in the vicinity and the was served with a copy of a writ as being the with hard labour, upon the second, both sen-idea in the minds of those people was apparently defendant in a suit in which his late employee, as tences to run concurrently. plaintiff, sought for the recovery of the sum of $500 alleged to be due on a promissory note dated 13th May, 1901. On 7th June the complainant went to Messrs. Wilkinson and Grist's office, accompanied by the late Mr. Robinson, barrister-at-law, and inspected the promissory note, which he saw at once was a forgery. However, the defendant persisted in the matter, and on 13th June the summary came on for trial before his Lordship T. Sexcombe Smith, judgment eventually being given for the complainant as defendant, with costs. The present case was the sequel of that action.
Case
Evidence having been heard, the jury, by a majority of six to one, found the prisoner guilty on the first, second, and fifth counts, and not guilty on the third and fourth. He was sentenced to five years' hard labour.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR T. SERCOMBE SMITH
(ACTING PUISNE JUDGE),
ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER CASE.
Miguel Hilario Roxas, the Filipino musician, was charged with the attempted murder by stabbing of Madame Maria Monroy de Zarza on 9th September in this Colony. He pleaded not guilty
Mr. M. W. Slade, barrister-at-law, conducted the prosecution on behalf of the Acting Attorney-General, and was instructed by Mr. FB: L. Bowley, Crown Solicitor.
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to sot the boat adrift and tow it away from there to a place where they would be able to
BEFORE HIS HONOUR A. G. Wise (ACTING dispose more easily of the people on boar 1. The
CHIEF JUSTICE).
ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE. Ma Choi was charged on two counts, the first being one of robbery with one or more persons in Hanghom Bay on 7th September, and the second of wounding to do grievous bodily harm. The prisoner pleaded guilty on the first count only.
The Hon, H. E. Pollock, K.C., Acting Attorney-General, said he would not proceed
on the second count.
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Sentence was passed of seven years' hard labour and two whippings of twenty strokes each.
Wednesday, 20th November.
IN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.
BEFORE HIS HONOUR A. G. WISE (ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE).
THE CAPSUIMUN MURDERS.
Kwok Tak Kung, Kwok Tsat Po, and Chan Yat were charged with having on 13th August at Capsuiman, in the waters of the Colony, murdered one Chan Shap Ng.
They pleaded not guilty. The Acting Attorney-General (Hon. H. E. Pollock, K.C.) instructed by Mr. F. B. L The following jury was empanalled:-C. Bowley, Crown Solicitor, prosecuted; and Osmund, A. R. Grieve, C. Makeham, E. A. H. Massrs. M. W. Slade and E. Sharpe, barristers Siebs,, A. P. Langley, A. Ellis, and E. H.at-law, instructed by Mr. O. D. Thomson Krol.
solicitor, appeared for the accused.
Mr. Slade, addresssing the jury, said there were two counts in the indictment against the prisoner. In the first he was charged with having wounded with intent to murder, and in
The following jury was empanelled :-H. A. Burke, H. W. Fortesquieu, N. K. Davidson, P. Hardman, H. M. Michael C. O. G. Herman, F. E. C. Georg.
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second prisoner, it would appear, did cat the rope, and thereupon the crew of the dinghy tried to tow the boat away. Unfortunately for them it was attached to another boat and their attempt resulted in a certain amount of scraping and bumping which woke up the occupants of that As to what took place and the other boats. subsequently, the evidence of Chan Luk and the other witnesses did not tally in all details, but there was, the Acting Attorney General thought, very good reason for that, considering the prevailing darkness and the confusion that must have existed among people suddenly awakened by a disturbance and the firing of shots. At all events, he thought the witnesses agreed upon this point, that the first prisoner fired several shots from the revolver which he 'carried, and that as a result the man whose death formed the subject of the indictment died almost immediately, and that his father was mortally wounded and died shortly after- wards. There were also two other men hit with revolver bullets. With regard to the second prisoner, King's evidence, he thought, only referred to him as having cut the anchor rope of the boat attacked and swam ashore. Other witnesses would give further details with regard to him, as to his having got into the dinghy after outting the rope and also as to one nian seeing him in the water swimming towards the boat and hitting at him with a bamboo pole, whereupon the first prisoner fired two shots. The point to consider with regard to the seco: d pri Boner was, however, that he had taken part in a common design to attack this boat and to overbear the people on board should resistance be offered. As to the third witness he was not
apparently armed, according to King's evidence. Other evidence, however, would be led to show
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