Morning journal and courier., 1888-01-14
Saturday, January IA. 1888.
MANY WITNESSES TESTIFY.

was put in by the State, which slowly deyel-
 ops it's evidence.
 Conductor George Kane was the first wit
 ness put on the stand yesterday morning at
 1O:30, at which time the judge and jurors ar-
 rived; the latter being delayed by late train. Coffee, the accused, did not act like a man with the terrible charge of murder hanging over his head when he appeared in the court room yesterday escorted by Sheriff Gates careful deputies. He chatted and smiled with his wife at his side and did not I seem at all worried as to the possible result of the evidence which may possibly send him | to the gallows.
 Engineer Eager, who proved good wit | ness for the State, at the opening Of the trial | testified to the details of how his train passed over Ways body. Conductor Kane 1 continued the story, beginning at the point 1 where the engineer left off, which was when | the train stepped. The witness said he had ! been in the employ of the Shore Line road \ for four years. He got of when the train | stopped and walked back with the other l train hands, They first found a hand and
 hand and part of leg. The face was turned down. The body was found between the rails, accounted for by the fact that the pilot was unusually high, having seven inches
 clearance above the ground and passed over | the body, throwing it under the front l wheels, which cut off the head-leaving it hanging by 6 thread of skin. He looked at | the face and felt of the corpse, which was warm; he did not recognize the mangled re- mains as those of Way and started for the station to find him. Looked all around, but | Way was nowhere to be found. In the search picked up 6 watch and a bunch of | railroad keys. His attention was called | to a pocketbeok in the inside pocket | of the corpse and saw Ways name | written in it, but there was no money in it. Counsel Blydenbursh cross examined at | length. The witness said 1T took the poek- | etbook out after I came back from calling at l Ways boarding house. It was my brother ! who called my attention to 1t. The body | lay at that time on the ground. l do not | know whether it was between the tracks or
 not that found the keys. am pretty sure | I put the pocketbook in the inside pocket. l It might have been half an hour between the | time when I first saw the body and the | time when I first took out the pocketbook. don't know just what time we reached Stony Creek. The train ran about half mile beyond the station before it stopped. I \ did not hear any whistle for brakes. | noticed the train begin to slow mp, but I | couldn't say at what point. The hand was picked up east of the body and west of the \ second cut, but do not remember the dis | tance. did not give the engineer orders to ! I ahead. We stopped at East River. I do not think we stopped at Guilford, although I will not be positive. When put my hand on the body it felt slightly warm. I put my
 hand on the bare body and not on the coat" Thomas Cronan, fireman on the train, next | Eager's statements concerning the speed of
 the train and the time it arrived at Stony | Creek He could see the body plainly from
 the cab. It lay partly on it's back and partly \ on it's side with the face turned toward the approaching train. It did not move at all. He was told by the engineer to go back and pick up the body. He put his hand on the | back of it between the shoulders There was | no motion. He had often felt of dead bodies | which had been run over and always noticed | a twitching in such cases; there was none in | this case. He saw the conductor take the 1 pocketbook and he identified it. When cross- | examined by counsel for the defense he said: l "You can see out of the cab window clear 1 across the tracks twenty feet ahead of the en- l zine. My window was closed. The body l felt slightly warm when put my hand on it. | The train had torn the clothing and I felt
 the bare body. On that night there was ! fog at intervals, but there was not any when ! we passed the Stony Creek station. When I came back to the body there were a number | of persons there, but don't know how many. There was one stranger, but I can't say whether there were more. l examined the | pilot house that night and there was no blood 1 on it."
 Brakeman Frank Spencer next testified l He found the dead mans vest on the east ! end of the spiling, where It had been carried | by the train, and the dead mans trousers | with the pockets pulled inside out. He ! struck blow at the suicide theory by swesr- ing that he saw Ways leg picked up and there was no blood upon it nor upon the clothes. It makes difference where the wounds were, however. The wit ! ness had picked up nine or ten bodies | killed by the cars and in every instance there was twitching or tremor. He found no | such post mortem symptoms about Ways \ mangled remains Witness swore that when ! the vest was found, nearly an eighth of 8 | mile from the body, from which it was 1 wrenched and carried by the train, the but \ tons and buttonholes were intact, which is I regarded by the State as indicating that the | vest of Way was unbuttoned when he wag | struck by the train. James Kane, another ! train hand was put on next and corroborated ! his colleagues in various particulars. Her. | man Coates, another brakeman, added cumu- | lative evidence of the same nature.
 The first sensation of the trial was the tes- timony of Solomon Russell, brakeman on the 11:35 a. m. Shore Line train. While
 stopping at Stony Creek the morning after I the murder he had a conversation with Coffee, \ which he swore was as follows:
 'sI said to Coffee: How did Way get kill- | eda Did he commit suicide?'''
 "'Suicide be d--d,' said Coffee. T was
 with Way two minutes before he was killed,
 and I'll tell all about it for $1, ,0O0.'"
 Cross-exafnined by the attorney tor the
 defense the witness said he never remem-
 bered seeing Coffee any other way than in toxicated.
 Engineer Daniel E. Knowles saw Coffee at
 the depot the time he admitted the above, as
 did William A. Babcock, who corroborated
 Brakeman Russell. After Engineer Knowles
 had testified 8 recess was taken until two | o'clock.
 Thomas J. filling, a conductor residing at Stony Creek, was the first witness after the recess. He was in New Haven on May and | went home in the evening with some friends | When he got off at Stony Creek he under | took to enter the depot, but found it locked
 up and he couldn't find Way. Giving up the
 attempt to find Way, I turned on the plat form and was about to leave the depot when | a lady accosted me. He did not know her and thought she had made a mistake.
 Edward N. How'd, who lives within five minutes walk of the depot, testified that Way boarded with him. The last he saw
 first heard of Ways death when someone knocked on his door between 10 and II o'clock. He asked if it were Way; he was
 answered that it was not. At the door he found the conductor end brakeman, who ask ed if he knew Charlie Ways watch. Wit
 ness said he didn't: They said they thought they had run over him. Witness then went
 and looked at Ways body. He knew Way \ was accustomed to carry considerable money ! in his inside pocket. William How'd, who | lives with his brother, substantiated the above evidence. Both saw the conductor \ take the pocketbook from the inside pocket ' of Ways coat, which lay near the body. The next witness called by the State was Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Gaylord. He Y has practiced medicine for fourteen years. He knew Charlie Way. On the nlgnt of May he was called before midEight, and found the body of Way on stretcher with clothes over it. He identified the body as
 being that of Way, from the features. He \ found traces of blood only on the track \ where evidently some flesh had been crushed Otherwise there was a noticeable lack of \ blood, which impressed him at the time as indicating that the man had been dead be- fore he WAS struck by the train. He placed the following memorandum in evidence, the result of his examination of Ways body: Head and limbs badly mutilat ed. Body slightly SO. Right foot cut of or torn just below the knee. Leg fractured at knee. T.-NJo f-anfuwa of Shioh Euoh hadIxy