Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 497, 15 Ianuali 1902 — JOE ROSA MEETS HIS DEATH FROM WOUND NEAR TEMPLE, SAYS JURY [ARTICLE]

JOE ROSA MEETS HIS DEATH FROM WOUND NEAR TEMPLE, SAYS JURY

George Rosa Held for Murder in First Degree Sharp Pointed Instrument Used to Penetrate Skull — Traces of Blood Found on Pair of Compasses — Wife and Son of deceased Testify — Fight Between The Brothers.

made, was thin and that the hole was circular in shape. The doctor said it was not likely that the puncture had been made by the putty knief which had been found with the compass. Dr. Alvarez Testifies. Dr. Alvarez, the attending physcian and the doctor who signed the death certificate assigning the cause of death as alcoholism, was the next witness. Dr. Alvarez was summoned to the Rosa residence about 11 o'clock on Sunday night. George Rosa called the doctor. George went to the doctor's house. The doctor noticed that George had been drinking. He drove to the Rosa residence with George. Here he followed George into the room where Joseph Rosa was lying. Mrs. Joseph Rosa was in bed. She was clothed only in a chemise. She arose and donned a gown. The doctor noticed the pillow case upon which Joe's head was lying. Doctor Saw Blood Stains. There were blood stains on the pillow case, the sheets and the mosquito netting. Joe Rosa was in a stupor. He could not be entirely aroused. His limbs seemed to be stiffening. The respiration was not noisy; it was rather easy. Temperature was 104. Pulse was 140. The smell of liquor on the breath of Joe was very strong. There were no symptoms of apoplexy. It seemed to be a case of poisoning by alcohol. There was no flow of blood from the wound on the temple. Joe was naked except for the covering of the bedding. His body was scratched in numerous places. The marks were superficial and the doctor noticed no wounds of a serious nature. Dr. Alvarez saw the mark on the left temple. It seemed to be nothing more than a scratch. The blood on the wound was dried a little. The wound seemed to be recent and had probably been made within the last twenty-four hours. There might have been a puncture of the skull under the scratch on the temple but this was not suspected by Dr. Alvarez. Said Joe Was Violent. Dr. Alvarez noticing the scratches on Joe's body, asked the brother George, how the wounds came to be inflicted, receiving in reply the information that Joe had become very violent and that it had been necessary to restrain him by holding him down. George said that Joe was suffering from delirium tremmens and that sometimes he became very violent and wanted to do injury to people in the house. George volunteered the information that Joe, when he was in this condition, expressed the intention of killing his wife. George said that Joe would attack any one who came near him while he was under the influence of liquor. The wife, the brother said, had run away at the time Joe was being held down by his brother. George afterward admitted to Dr. Alvarez that there had been a fight. Dr. Alvarez gave the patient an injection of strychnine before leaving him for the night. Wanted Death Certificate. On Monday morning, according to the testimony of Dr. Alvarez, George Rosa called at the doctor's office and said that his brother was dead and that he wanted a certificate of death. The doctor said that George would have to wait until he had consulted with the president of the Board of Health. The doctor reminded George that the patient had received numerous scratches, that there had been a fight and that it would be necessary perhaps, to see the body before granting the death certificate. Dr. Alvarez called on Dr. Sloggett and told him of the case, asking him what was best to be done under the circumstances. Dr. Alvarez testified that Dr. Sloggett had said that fights and rows were common in the district in which this death had occur-

An inquest was held last night in the office of the coroner, at the police station, on the body of Joseph Rosa who died under conditions on Monday morning at his home on Punchbowl street, near Kinau. As previously reported, Dr. Alvarez attended the deceased just before death and diagnosed the ease as one of alcoholism, giving a death certificate to that effect on the following day. The remains were interred in the Catholic cemetery on Monday afternoon. The police received a hint that something was wrong and caused the body to be exhumed. An autopsy was held at the morgue. Dr. McDonald making the examination. This occurred on Monday night when a coroner’s jury was impanelled and the body was viewed. Verdict of Coroner's Jury. The coroner’s jury met at 7 o’clock last night and examined Joe McKinnon, now night clerk at the police station; Dr. Shorey, government food inspector and chemist; Dr. J. T. McDonald, the physician who performed the autopsy; Dr. Alvarez. the attending physician and the doctor who gave the death certificate; Willie Keawe. the Hawaiian who visited the Rosa house on Sunday and who is said to have given the first intimation that something was wrong, by notifying Deputy Sheriff Albert McGurn; Louis Richard Rosa, the thirteen-year old son of the dead man; and Mrs. Joseph Rosa, the wife of deceased. It was almost 11 o’clock when the jury returned the following verdict: "That the said Joe Rosa came to his death in Honolulu, Island of Oahu, on the 13th day of January, A. D. 1902, as the result of an injury to the skull causing the formation of a blood-clot and consequent pressure on the brain; said injury, so this jury believes, being the result of a blow from some sharp pointed instrument in the hands of a person to this jury unknown. "A. M. BROWN, Coroner, "G. B. CURTIS, "WILLIAM C. SCHNEIDER, "HERBERT M. AYRES, "W. F. SABIN, "HERMAN KUBEY, "WILLIAM D. WILDER" Charged With Murder. High Sheriff Brown now holds George Rosa, the brother of the dead man, on a charge of murder in the first degree. He will probably be held for the next grand jury. Mrs. Joseph Rosa, who had been held as a witness in the matter, was last night allowed to return to her home and children. She will, of course, be summoned as a witness when the case comes to trial. The testimony given by the various witnesses last night contained nothing definite which would go to show who administered the blow which caused the death of Joseph Rosa. While circumstantial evidence indicated that the brother, George Rosa, had a great deal to do with the fatal wound in the head of the deceased, there was no evidence which warranted the jury finding that the weapon which caused death was held in the hands of the brother. George Rosa is held by the police, however, as a suspect and will have to account for his actions just prior to the death of Joseph Rosa. Had Previous Trouble. The first witness called was Joe McKinnon, night clerk at the police station, who testified to some knowledge of the Rosa family and their troubles, having at one time witnessed some demonstration of enmity between the brothers Joseph, the deceased, and George. Dr. Shorey, food commissioner, was the next to be examined. He had received the stomach of the deceased to examine. He said that he had failed to find any indication of the presence of alcohol in the stomach, although he did not wish this fact to imply, necessarily, that the man had not been drinking heavily prior to his death, for it was possible for con-

siderable alcoholic liquid to have been taken into the stomach, and, at the same time, for no trace of it to be found after death. The stomach was slightly inflamed but there were absolutely no indications that would point to the deceased having come to his death by alcoholism, or alcoholic poisoning. Blood Spots on Compass. Dr. Shorey said that he had also received, from the police, a pair of ordinary metal compasses, old and rusty, for examination as to whether or not there were any traces of blood on the instrument. The doctor had prepared a chart of the two sides of the compass, marking in red the blood spots he had found on the instrument. A small splotch of blood was shown at the joint and there were several spots on either arm of the compass. No blood was noticed on the points. Dr. Alvarez was asked if there were any questions he wished to ask the witness. He said that Dr. Shorey had explained the matter of alcohol very satisfactorily when he said that the fact of no signs of alcohol in the stomach did not necessarily imply that the deceased had not been drinking heavily. Dr. McDonald's Report. Dr. McDonald, the autopsy physician. next gave his testimony, commencing by reading his technical report of the autopsy. He described minutely every wound which had been noticeable on the body, dwell ing especially on the subject of the wound over the left temple which, as the doctor said, was certainly sufficient in itself to cause death and which could hardly have resulted otherwise. The doctor described the wound as hardly noticeable at a superficial glance, there being only a slight cut in the skin. Beneath the skin, however, there was a hole in the skull. All probabilities were against the theory of alcoholic poisoning. Dr. McDonald believed that the man had recently been drinking very freely, although there, was no odor of alcohol when the stomach was examined. There were indications of nothing else which could have resulted in death. The doctor made a most thorough examination of the body and described the condition of every organ minutely, showing clearly that the head was the cause of death. Lingering Life Explained. When asked if it was not unusual for a man to live with a hole in his head as long after the injury was received as Joseph Rosa was supposed to have lived, there being some uncertainty as to the exact time the wound was inflicted. Dr. McDonald replied that the case was not an extraordinary one and that there was nothing very unusual in the fact that Rosa lived many hours after the time when the hole in the head is supposed to have been made. Rosa died some time before 9:30 o'clock on Monday morning and it is supposed that the injury to the head was inflicted on Sunday morning. Sharp Pointed Weapon Used. Asked concerning the probable nature of the weapon used to inflict the wound in the head. Dr. McDonald said that it was undoubtedly made by some sharp pointed instrument. He said that he was greatly surprised after looking at the small cut on the forehead to find out that there was a hole in the skull. It was hardly to be suspected by a look at the skin wound that the skull had been punctured. The instrument must have been sharp and pointed. The wound could not have been made by a blade. The doctor was asked to examine the compass which had been found hidden in the fence of the yard of the Rosa residence and to say whether or not the wound might have been inflicted by such an instrument. He said that the hole in the skull had evidently been made by just such an instrument. He explained that the skull, where the wound had been

red, but that if there were any indications of there having been foul play the death certificate should be withheld. After the interview with Dr. Sloggett, Dr Alvarez decided to see the body before giving the death certificate. Examines the Body. At about noon on Monday Dr. Alvarez went again to the Rosa house and examined the body of Joseph Rosa. The body had been laid out. The doctor said that he carefully examined all the various scratches on the body, noticing the cut over the left temple, but finding nothing which led him to suppose that any wound was sufficient to have resulted in death. The doctor said that he only looked at the cut on the forehead. He did not probe the wound, nor did he feel it with his fingers. The doctor testified that he then felt that he was between two responsibilities. He had either to give the cause of death as nearly as he could ascertain it and possibly, by so doing, allow a crime to be hidden, or had to accuse persons for no good reason of having committed a crime. As the scratches did not seem to point to any possible cause of death he made a diagnosis by exclusion, arriving at the conclusion that the man had died as the result of alcoholic poisoning. Questions Mrs. Rosa. Dr. Alvarez testified that he took Mrs. Joseph Rosa aside and questioned her as to what she knew in regard to the death of her husband. Mrs. Rosa did not seem to be very much overcome with grief. She said that she was afraid her husband would attack her and for that reason had run away when there was trouble between the two brothers. After questioning the woman Dr. Alvarez returned to his office and signed the death certificate, giving alcoholism as the cause of death. While examining the body the doctor had noticed a bottle of witch hazel near the bed. He saw nothing of the compass or putty knife. Dr. Alvarez was asked if it was possible to determine a death from alcoholism without holding a post mortem examination. The answer that he had arrived at this diagnosis by exclusion, by reasoning by the symptoms that the cause was nothing else and therefore must he alcoholisrn. Dr. Alvarez had never attended any member of the RNosa family before. When he first visited the patient the latter did not speak at any time. He could not be aroused. Dead Man’s Son Speaks. Louis Richard Rosa the young son of the dead man, next gave his testimony. He said that on Saturday night his father had wanted to beat his mother. He became frightened and ran away to his grandmother who was staying with a neighbor and spent the night there, returning to the house about 7 p'clock on Sunday morning. When the trouble started Saturday night everybody was more or less under the influence of liquor. He said he didn't see George strike his father. When he came back home on Sunday morning his father was in bed. He saw no blood. He was afraid his father would get up and raise a row so he went away to play, coming back at 1 o'clock for dinner. His father was still on the bed. The boy went to church that night. Lated he went with George to get the doctor. He heard the doctor ask his mother where the blood on the pillow came from. On Saturday night he had heard his father say that he would "fix" George. He did not know the reason of the trouble between his father and uncle. He did not know why his father wanted to beat his mother. The Widow Tells Her Story. Mrs. Joseph Rosa was next called and sworn. She and deceased had been married over thirteen years. There was trouble at the house on Saturday night. Joe ordered her mother and the children out of the house. They went. Joe tried to hit his wife without evident cause, but because he generally acted that way when drunk. George was home. He was outside. George and Joe quarreled. The woman, afraid, ran away. She said she did not know what took place until 1 o'clock Sunday morning when she returned to the house. She heard Joe ask for her and heard Joe accuse his brother of hiding his wife from him. George called her and said that Joe wanted to see her. The woman was outside in the yard. She would not go in. She was afraid to enter. George went out into the yard to tell her to go in. She would not. As George started back up the steps he was met by Joe who struck George. George then struck Joe and knocked him down. George went in and closed the door. Joe demanded that the door be opened. He wanted to sleep, George opened the door on the promise that there would be no more trouble. The woman afterward went in. She noticed no scratch on her husband's forehead. After that they all had some beer. Thought Something Was Wrong. Then there was more quarrelling and the woman went to her mother's and staid until 7 o'clock Sunday morning. Then she noticed George's

face had been scratched. Joe was lying in bed. She saw the compass and the putty knife on the floor. Had never seen it there before. Thought husband had taken them from canvas bag in their room. Was afraid he would use them and hid them in the fence in the yard. She saw Joe's forehead cut and bleeding. He sat up and asked for wine. She gave it to him. No other words were spoken by Joe. The Hawaiian, Keawe, called Sunday morning and was later ordered out by George. George did not strike her. They had been together. Later in the day she tried to wake Joe, but could not. This was 5 p. m., Sunday. She thought something was going to happen and at 11 o'clock asked George to get the doctor. She sat by her husband on the bed and tried to wake him every few minutes. She did not ask George about Joe's head. She staid up with Joe until he died "about 5 o’clock Monday morning." She did not know whether George had injured her husband in their quarrel. She did not know that her husband was jealous of George. She had not seen George strike Joe with any weapon. George paid the rent of the house in which they lived.