Here we have reasonable history. The crowd returns and finds the five in the presence of the murder. This implicates them by their location, even if it doesn’t completely match what the servants would have said. For the ancient world that did not understand the science of detective work, the presence of the five in a compromising position was sufficient to seize them and throw them in jail.
Cultural: We get a glimpse into the ancient mind when Mormon tells us that the response of the people to the five who are overcome with the spirit is to conclude: “God has smitten them that they could not flee from us.” While the conclusion was directly opposite of the facts, even though God was the cause of their falling to earth, this very statement tells us that this is a people who expect that God will be an immediate judge in the affairs of men. As we will see shortly, this is a people whose conception of the world accepted the interference of God, or more precisely, gods, in their lives. These same people will claim Nephi as a god – one who can interfere in the affairs of man.