to be hanged. According to Mayor Sierra, if not for the protection he gave Simon, 'the people would have taken [Simon] into their own hands.' The mayor told Simon that if he admitted that he alone had burned Dr. Maxwell’s house, that he would be tried and certainly hung. However, the mayor also told Simon that if he had accomplices, he could turn state’s evidence and his accomplices would be put on trial rather than him." Sierra further testified that when he asked Simon if he set these fires, "Simon replied, 'Send for my master, and I will tell the whole.' Simon’s master, Alex McVoy, arrived at the mayor’s office, and McVoy reiterated to Simon the warnings and promises that the mayor had already made. Simon then stated that he had set fire to Dr. Maxwell’s house, and that he was alone when he did it. Simon told Mayor Sierra and McVoy that he had started the fire at a ground-floor window on the east side of Dr. Maxwell’s house and remained there until it was blazing." Simon’s attorney Richard Lewis Campbell questioned Mr. Joseph Commyns, who "testified that he saw Dr. Maxwell’s house on fire at about 2 a.m. and that he was one of the first persons to arrive on scene. Commyns contradicted Simon’s purported confession. According to Commyns, the fire did not start at the ground floor of the house as Simon had stated, but rather at the shingles on the roof." Campbell also questioned Chester Knapp, who "contradicted Simon’s purported confession. According to Knapp, the fire had not started on the ground floor, but rather in the attic. Further, Knapp testified that upon seeing the attic in flames, he had tried to break down the front door of the home, and that had the ground floor windows been burning, he would have noticed." Following Campbell's examination of Commyns and Knapp, the State questioned McVoy, "who testified that he was in the mayor’s office when Simon confessed and that Simon was 'laboring under great terror, and that he never saw anyone more terrified.'" Citing American and English common law, Campbell motioned that Finley "exclude Simon’s confession from the jury’s consideration, arguing that Simon’s statements to Mayor Sierra were elicited by undue terror or the hope of reward." Finley denied Campbell’s motion and directed the jury "to determine whether Simon’s confession was voluntary." The jury found Simon guilty.