Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

Mr J. Hammond went to see the body on the 28th of November. It was in a putrid state, but he was sure it was Syms.

The Right Hon. C. Bathurst produced the original depositions taken before him, and which corresponded with the evidence which had been gi

ven.

Elizabeth Chaffey keeps the Swan at Pyle. She was acquainted with Hurd and Syms; they used to frequent her house. Syms and Burton came to her house on the 5th of November, from Bristol. Syms and Hurd went to bed together. Syms, Hurd, and Burton were together the next morning. The prisoner had eleven pints of beer, but could not pay for them.

John Comingford saw the prisoner with Syms at Mrs Chaffey's, on the evening of November the 6th. The prisoner asked Syms to give him a pint of beer. The deceased was a near man, but he had plenty of money. The prisoner asked the deceased whether he would go home? He said, "Yes." Witness said it was not weather to go in an open boat, the wind and rain being very strong. Esther Smith proved that the prisoner had come to her and asked her to let him have some things on Hurd's account: he had some bread and tobacco.

James Henry Ball lives at Wool. laston. He knew the prisoner Syms, and Hurd. He saw them all three embark in Hurd's boat for Bristol. Burton asked him to lend him 2s. which he declined. Witness saw the prisoner the Sunday following, and sked him what he had done with Syms. He said he had put him on shore at the Eastern Point, and thought he had either gone to America or Barbadoes. Witness caused the prisoner to be apprehended and taken before Mr Bathurst. He had the boat-head examined on the day the prisoner

was committed. He observed the left-hand side. It had been mopped very much, and he looked particularly to that part, as it was so clean. He could see the grain of the wood where the paint had been rubbed off, and discovered what appeared to be marks of blood. He observed the gunwale, and the seats which run across the boat. Before the after. thwart, it had been struck so as to make a dent. In this dent there were the stains of blood. There were marks too, as if blood had run on the edge of the gunwale. He went to Epney to view the body on the 28th of November. It was in a barn, and he knew it to be Syms. One of the eyes was out; and the head dreadfully disfigured.

James Evans saw the prisoner at Chepstow on Monday the 9th of November.

Prisoner asked him what time the vessel would sail to Bristol, and if he would take any thing to drink? Witness said, "Yes." The prisoner asked him to change him a L.5 bill. Witness got the bill changed. Burton had some rum, and paid for it with silver.

John Hill, a shoemaker at Chepstow, proved that, on the evening of the 7th of November, the prisoner bought of him a pair of shoes, for which he paid with a L.5 Chepstow bill.

Several other witnesses were then called, who proved that the prisoner, from being very poor, suddenly became rich, and paid all his debts.

Priscilla Jones is wife to Jones, who is steward to the ship Concert. She proved that her husband was unable to lend the prisoner L.8, nor was he much acquainted with him.

Mr Woodriff produced a handker. chief, marked W. S., which he received from Sarah Davies.

William Davies proved that he received the handkerchief from the pri soner.

Rachael Richards made for Syms, shortly before his death, the handkerchief produced in evidence.

Mrs Chaffey deposed, that the handkerchief produced was like one which she saw the deceased drying at her fire on the morning of the 7th of November.

This was the whole of the case for the Crown.

The witnesses were ingeniously cross-examined by Mr Twiss for the prisoner.

Mr Justice Richardson then summed up the evidence with great clearness and perspicuity, and the jury, after a short consultation, found the prisoner Guilty.

The Learned Judge immediately proceeded to pass sentence of death. The prisoner was ordered for execution on Thursday, at one o'clock, on which day he underwent the punish ment due to his crime, having previously acknowledged the justice of his

sentence.

Worcester Assizes, Wednesday, July 28.

Murder.

Robert Turner Watkins and Edward Watkins were put to the bar, charged with the murder of Stephen Rodway, the first as principal, the other as accessory after the fact.

Mr Casberd, on the part of the prosecution, stated, that there was no direct proof against Edward Watkins; with regard to the other, however, the evidence, although entirely circumstantial, was of the strongest nature, and was as follows:

The deceased, in the course of his business as a coal-merchant, went to Wootton-Bassett on Friday the 7th of May last. He rode a dark-coloured horse, and had a brown great-coat strapped on the hinder part of the saddle. On his returning from Wootton

Bassett to Cricklade in the evening of that day, about half after nine o'clock, he was shot near the village of Stoke, and about midway between Purton and Stoke. The report of the pistol or gun was heard by a person who lived near the spot. About an hour afterwards the body was discovered, yet warm. Upon its being opened, no doubt existed of the death having been occasioned by the gunshot wounds discovered on it. Although the deceased is supposed to have had a very considerable sum on his person at the time of the murder, he was robbed of all except a few halfpence. Suspicions were of course various respecting the murderer. It was recollected, however, that theprisoner was at the White Hart Inn at Cricklade, on Friday the 7th of May in the evening, and that he left that place between the hours of eight and nine, professedly to go home; so that, supposing him to have left Cricklade at half past eight, he could easily have reached the spot where the murder was committed at half past nine. At this time he was observed to have a great coat, which he kept constantly rolled up, as a bundle, on his knees. A person was observed about half past nine in the evening of the same day, at half a mile's distance, on the Cricklade side of the spot where the murder was committed, who had on a great coat very much like this of the prisoner's. The person appeared to have something concealed on the right shoulder, but, though twice spoken to, gave no answer. He turned up a lane, as if to avoid inquiry; and yet he was observed to return again to the road immediately after the persons who observed him had passed by. A report of fire-arms was immediately afterwards heard by a witness, who lived very near the scene of the murder, and who saw a man in a light-coloured dress, on a dark horse, turn

down a lane called Bentham-lane. An apparent change in the prisoner's circumstances not a little contributed to increase these suspicions. On the day after the murder, the prisoner was observed to be possessed of much ready money, a circumstance very unusual with him. On the Monday following he paid away two one-pound notes, which will be identified as having been the property of the deceased, paid to him on the 3d of May by his son-in-law, together with a five pound Bank of England note, which the prisoner sent on the 8th to a person named Sophia Cozens, who lived near Cirencester. In this letter he states that he sends her the note to buy a sow and pigs. He gives a description of the note, 66 a L.5 note, the Bank of England, NO. 11,390, 5th August 1818, T. Booth." He carried this letter himself to the post, and paid the postage of it. On the 10th of May he sent another letter to the same person, in which he says, "there is a dispute about the note; the man I took it of is in hold; I hope you will return the note; I think it a forged note." Both these letters reached Miss Cozens together, on the 12th and she immediately returned the note in a letter, which was stopped, and the note retained. This circumstance of the property of the deceased being found immediately after his death on the person of the prisoner, greatly tends to inculpate the latter in the murder. His examinations before the magistrates contained conflicting accounts. At his first examination he stated, that he never heard any report, and that he never met any body till he came to Purton, where he met a man on horseback with a coat strapped on behind. At his second examination he admitted that he saw a man on a black horse, in a smock frock, ride away from the

place where he understood the mur der was committed; nay, that he overheard what was said, as well as the report of the pistol; and that he saw the murderer ride along the road, and then turn down a lane. He described the appearance of the man, and on three or four persons being shown him, pointed out Thomas Ockewell. Inquiry being made, it was most satisfactorily proved that Ockewell was at Oxford at the time of the murder. The prisoner insisted in one of his examinations that he had never corresponded with Miss Cozens after the 6th of May. Both of the letters before alluded to, the first on the 8th, and the second on the 10th of May, would, however, be proved to be in his handwriting. He stated, that for four or five years he never had a pistol; but on being farther examined he admitted that he had had one, but had sold it to one William Blanchett. It will be proved that two days before this murder a pistol was seen on his table; nay, that he had employed a person in repairing it. The Learned Counsel then mentioned the falsehood of the accounts which he had given respecting his way of becoming possessed of the notes, and of his disposal of them; and concluded a most lucid and masterly address to the jury, with observing, that with regard to the second prisoner, the evidence was extremely slight, as the only circumstance of suspicion attaching to him was, his being seen secreting a pistol in the garden. The witnesses called deposed to the following effect :

Phoebe Grimes, of Stoke, in the parish of Purton.-On Friday the 7th of May, about ten o'clock in the evening, in the turnpike-road to Purton and Wootton-Bassett, and near to the village of Stoke, she found a man, who afterwards turned out to

be the deceased, apparently dead. She rode back to Stoke, where she met with the next witness, and told him the circumstance.

William Bath, solicitor, lives at Purton. He saw last witness on the evening of the 7th of May last, nearly half past ten o'clock, and went with her and a person named Cornwall Packer, to the spot spoken to by the last witness, to a place called Moor-stone, half a mile from Stocklane. He saw the body lying across the road; it was warm; it was lying on the back, with the legs and arms extended. He sent immediately for Mr Wells, of Cricklade, surgeon. The deceased's pockets being searched by witness's direction, and in his presence, it was discovered that his watch was gone, and nothing left in his pockets except a few halfpence. William Wells, surgeon, Cricklade, about eleven o'clock at night, on the 7th day of May last, attended at the place where the deceased was found. The body, by his order, was removed to the Bell public-house at Stoke. Upon examining the body, it appeared to him that the deceased had come to his death by a shot which had entered at the top of his chest.. On the next day, on his further examining the body, he found one very large wound and two small ones on the chest, and on opening the body the first thing that presented itself was a shirt-breast-buckle, which was forced with part of the bone into the chest, and had ruptured the large ascending artery, which of itself was sufficient to cause immediate death. On proceeding further in examining the body, three horse-nail heads, now produced, were found in different parts, viz. one in the spine, another near one of the ribs on the right side, and one on the top of the lungs. The spine appeared to be perforated by a ball

and two nail-heads. It appeared, from the nature of the wound, that the deceased must have been on horseback, and in a leaning position at the time it was made, as the ball, &c. went obliquely downwards, and passed out below the blade-bone on the right shoulder.

John Habgood had married a daughter of the deceased; managed his business for him; and received and paid money for him. The deceased went away from home between one and two o'clock, on the 7th of May; he rode a black horse, and had a great coat on; and was going to Wootton-Bassett, eight miles from Cricklade. The road branches off at Purton, at the turnpike. On the evening of Monday, the 3d of May, he paid the deceased with other money, the two one-pound notes, and the five pound Bank of England note now produced. He put the name of J. Williams, the person he received it from, on the five pound note. He also marked the other two one pound notes produced, and knows them again.

Henry Cox, of Wootton-Bassett, mason, about eight o'clock in the evening of the 7th of May, went into the White Hart Inn, at Cricklade. Within a few minutes afterwards the prisoner, Robert Watkins, came in. Witness asked him whether he was going home. He said, "No, he was not" that he should not sleep at the White Hart, but go further up in the town, which was towards Purton. After this, witness and the prisoner drank a little beer together: the prisoner left the White Hart. This was between eight and nine o'clock, and the witness saw no more of him. The prisoner had a great coat rolled up in a bundle, which he kept constantly on his knees.

Thomas Eagles, servant of Messrs J. and W. Poulton.-On the 7th of May last he was employed with Wil

liam Hicks to drive some sheep of their master's to Cricklade. When he was passing the village of Stoke, he saw a man on the road, about six or eight yards from him, and coming in a line to meet him. The man turned aside, as though he was going to the village; but as soon as this witness had passed the road to the village, the man again returned into the road. It seemed as though he did this to avoid meeting the witness. The man appeared to have something concealed under the great coat on his right shoulder. Witness could not see the man's face, because his hat was pulled down, and the collar of his great coat buttoned up.

William Hicks corroborated the testimony of the last witness.

Ann Seymour, of Purton-stoke, lived with her father, close to the high road, very near the spot where the murder was committed. On Friday evening, the 7th of May, between nine and ten o'clock, as she was standing at the door of her father's house, she heard the report of a gun or pistol, and within a few minutes afterwards she saw a man ride by her father's house, and turn down a lane, called Bentham-lane: he had on a light coloured dress, and the horse was dark coloured.

William Simpkins, of Bentham, found a loose horse in Bentham-lane in the morning after the murder, which he afterwards understood belonged to the deceased.

Sophia Cozens lives at Hunston, two miles from Cricklade, and knew Watkins. She received three letters from Robert Watkins on the 12th of May, and wrote an answer; a five pound note had been sent her inclosed in one of the letters of Watkins.

John Huse proved the handwriting of the prisoner.

Nathaniel Wells, solicitor for the

prosecution, lives at Cricklade. The prisoner was taken into custody on the 12th of May. Witness saw him at the White Hart, Cricklade. Vickery was present at the first examination, and at several others: no inducement or threat was offered: the prisoner spoke freely: witness took minutes of what he said, but never told the prisoner he was taking notes. The prisoner voluntarily gave the account, but was not pressed. Vickery put questions to him, and witness took down the minutes, which were read over to the prisoner, who said they were all true. (Prisoner's counsel objected to the notes being read, on the ground of the danger of the precedent, which was given up.) Prisoner said he was at the White Hart at Cricklade about eight o'clock in the evening of the 7th of May: he meant to have gone to his uncle's, but altered his mind, and went towards home about twenty minutes after eight, with a great coat under his arm. He saw the place where the murder was committed; and he went across the field which cuts off an angle towards Purton. He went straight home, but met a man and horse at the blacksmith's shop at Purton, with a great coat strapped on behind him; he met no one else that he knew. From thence he went towards Wootton-Bassett, where he ar rived at ten o'clock, or a little after, as he heard the church clock strike ten before he got to his house. He did not hear a report of any gun or pistol in his way home from Cricklade on the night of the murder. He met two men coming down Purtonhill, towards Cricklade, near Mr Perry's school, above 150 yards behind the man he had met on horseback with a great coat behind him. He said, he had brought from Chichester (where he had been at work on a canal two or three weeks before)

« AnteriorContinuar »