Yesterday afternoon in the criminal district court the trial of W.C. [W.P.] Newton, charged with the murder of James Peel on Jan. 20, 1898, was begun.

This is one of the cases growing out of the killing of James Peel near the Kaufman county line at the time above mentioned, an account of which was given in The News at the time, and mentioned in detail a few days ago, when the trial of George Hammil [Hamill], also charged with the same offense was commenced. On Saturday a jury adjudged Hammil guilty of murder in the second degree and gave him five years in the penitentiary.

All the time yesterday afternoon up to 5:30 o'clock was consumed in obtaining a jury from the special venire that had been summoned.

Following are the jurors selected to try the case: G.C. Smith, C. Wheat, W.L. Bullock, Howard Jones, John Williams, E.J. Sealey, George Kennedy, Mr. Gist, Jess Wright, B.L. Adair, J.E. Thacker and J.M. Sears.

The jurors being selected they were given the usual instructions by the court not to talk among themselves about the case, not to talk to any person about anything and to report to the court if any person attempted to talk to them, and not to separate during the pendency of the trial. The case then went over until 9 o'clock this morning.