Charles Lawrence & Augustine Mirano: Murder

Charles Lawrence and his half brother Augustine Mirano and their friend Charles Padilla, murdered H. C. McCarty Sep 1902 in Elk Grove, CA. 



Inmate #5306 Folsom Prison
Rec: 12 Feb 1903
Crime: Murder 1st Degree
Term: Death by Execution


Inmate: #5219 Folsom Prison
Rec: 20 Jan 1903
Crime: Murder 2nd Degree
Term: 17 years


Inmate #5308 Folsom Prison
Rec: Murder 1st Degree
Crime: 1 Feb 1903
Term: Death bu Execution

They were all Hop-Pickers hop farmers employed both Native Americans and whites to work their fields. Hop-pickers H.C. McCarty and Frederick Mize rode a cart into Elk Grove on September 4, 1902, to buy provisions, including wine. The above men new they would be coming back with a cart full of goodies including the wine. According to Mize, Morano and Padilla, both fifteen-year-old lads, had been drinking. The boys asked McCarty and Mize for wine and they were all too happy to share the spirits with the boys. Charles Lawrence, Morano’s half-brother, soon joined them. When the Indians demanded even more wine, Mize and McCarty refused. Padilla struck Mize in the head with a club, rendering him unconscious. Around midnight, Mize awoke to find his cart and belongings gone. McCarty laid dead in the road, severely beaten and with a bullet through his head. 
” Based on witness accounts of the men boasting about the murder, police arrested Morano, Padilla, and Lawrence for the murder of McCarty. Witness Frank Blue said that the men claimed they had “kicked hell out of a couple of fellows down the road.” Each one of the men had a seperate trial. None denied the charges but finger pointing was going on between Padilla and Lawrence. prosecution presented the theory that all three conspired together to commit the robbery when they earlier happened to overhear McCarty’s and Mize’s plan to purchase liquor. Lawrence rode into Elk Grove, confirmed the purchase, then rode back to inform his fellow conspirators.
Charles Lawrence denied this story, he tried to protect Mize and was nowhere near the cart or McCarty when Padilla shot him.
 Even though the jury heard much conflicting evidence, the members found Lawrence guilty of murder in the first degree. After the Lawrence verdict, Morano tried to save his half-brother by claiming he, not Lawrence, shot McCarty. Instead, a judge sentenced Morano to seventeen years in prison. After receiving a death sentence himself for the murder, Padilla secured a new trial. Five days after Folsom executed Lawrence on October 7, 1904, Padilla was sentenced to life in prison.





https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35999698/charles_lawrence/

On 7 Oct 1904 at 10:17 in the morning Charles Lawrence swang from the gallows of Folsom Prison it took him 11 minutes and 10 seconds to die. He is buried in the Folsom Prison Cemetery. Here is the Find A Grave link to his memorial.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170032653

The only thing on his gravestone is 5308 his inmate number. I did not find very much genealogy information except Charles was born about 1878 in California and his brother Augustine was born about 1886 also in California. 

I really would like to know what happened to Augustine when he left prison in 1913. I am still researching so I will do an update on this when I get more information. I made him a tree on Ancestry, it's the only one.



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