The morning news., 1892-03-30
GAY GUILTY OF MURDER.
THE JURY RETURNS a VERDICT IN
SEVEN MINUTES.


and His Statement on the stand
ling About Ills conviction-He
Tries to Put Everything on His Co
Consp,rators to Save Himself-A
Great crowd o: Spectators at The
Tr,el.
August W. Meyers murder is TO b
avenged.
Jim Gay, one Of the negro conspira.ors.
whose trial began Monday morning in the
superior court, was convicted OF the crime
last night shortly before IL O'Clock The
Jury was ous only seven minutes In arrivi1 <
at a verdict condsnnlng Gay 10 ths gall
lows
Judge Falligsnt reserved sentence until
after the determination Of Gays alleged CO.
conspirators, when ell will be sentenced
tOgether.
The evidence against the prisoner vas
overwhelming. and those who att -Hdsd yes
terday's proceedings were satisfied that the
negro's fate was sealed long befors it was
given to the jury.
THE CROWD AT COURT.
When court convened at 9 o'clock the
crowd was much greater than on the first
day, and Sheriff Roman was compelled to
resort to the same methods as those he
adopted at the Landsberg trial, locking the
doors TO keep the overflow from jostlIng Ehe
crowd inside and causing disorder.
Gay presented the same COO, ,unconcerned
appearance he did Monday, and no one not
familiar with the case would think from
the prisoners conduct that be was being
tried for q serious offense. He sat
between his counsel chewing tcSsoco In
cessantly and squirting the juice from be-
tween his lips at a spittoon about five feet
away.
Policeman Quinn, who was one OF the
witnesses for the prosecution day. before
yesterday, was put up by the defense 70
prove that Gus Williams had made Gays
house his home for some time.
Justice McDermott was also put upon
the stand for the evident purpose OF trying
to prove discrepancies In the confessions
published in the newspapers at the time.
NEVER SAW GAY WITH THEM.
Frank Days, Adam Lewis and James
Wallace testified that they had seen Marion
Hey ward, Gus Williams and others in con-
sultation before the murder of Mr.. Meyer,
but had never seen Gay with them.
Queen Martin, who has been held In fail
since the murder as an accessory. swore
most positively that Gay remained In his
house the night of the murder. She was
staying there, and said she knew what she
was speaking about. Queen also said that
there were two bloody ak handles in Gays
house for several weeks. they having been
ussd by Sarah Gay in a fight. She also
corroborated the other witnesses statements
about how Gay got the blood on his shoes
from Bosy Williams cut.
GAYS STORY.
The prisoner was next put upon the
A. l.
of the coolest men who ever stood 10 the
witness box, and for an hour be related his
movements prior to Mr.. Meyers murder and
tried to explain away the testimony against
him.
Picking up one of the bloody ak handles
Gay said: This ak handle had for over
a year. One day my wife and another
woman had dispute and my wife hit her
over the arm and cut a CASH" Then he
related how he and his wife had been sent 20
Jail for it, and concluded by saying "tnat's
all about that ak handle"
Taking hold Of the other which has blood
spotted all over it Gay said the ak handle
had been purchased from Fred Gravy a
few weeks before Mr.. Meyers murder. He
explained the blood upon 1t by claiming that
his wife had used it to beat a woman namad
Josephine, Both ak handles, Gay said, had
been in his house until the officers found
them.
EXPLAINING THE BLOOD STAINS.
Taking the ak handle Gay walked
carelessly over to the jury and holding the
bloody side to the gaze of the twelve men
he remarked: Here you can see where
the blood spattered from the bushy head
of the woman and has been wiped with a
rag"
A few Of the jurymen examined the
weapon and handed it back to the prisoner,
,ha utaT de-.
squirting tobacco juice In one Of the jury's
pittoons.
After Gay laid down the ak handle he ex-
planned the blood upon his shoes by saying
he got it from cut in Bosy Williams side
Saturday night before Mr.. Meyer was
killed. Sunday morning. said Gay,
while was going out through my back
gate | saw Gus Williams, Marion Hayward
and Charley Bacon In Lie Faulk's yard.
They said Hello and answered them. /
then went on out to the Waters road and
played skin until o'clock in the after
noon.n
With Noble Green, Gay said he went into
Duffy street lane. Green went to his own
house, and Gay said he went into his
brothers. aud staid few minutes. Then he
started for home. and out on Burroughs
street he met Gus Williams, who said he
was going TO Mr.. Garwes.
ESCORTED HIS MoTHER-IN-LAw.
1t was about o'clock, Gay said, when be
got to bis home on Mulberry avenue His
mother-in-law, who was at his house, asked
him to take her out of the dark lane. This
he said he did, and then he returned home
and had something TO eat. Tunk Coleman
left his house about 7:30 or O'Clock. After
chatting with his wife for about ten min
utes Gay said he went TO bed and staid there
until o'clock Monday morning.
The first place he went was to Garwes
store. Mr.. Garwes wasn't up, but Martin
was. He was talking to Joe Winters and
other white boys about somebody -atung
killed. After he finished taking to them
Gay said he asked who it was that had beer
killed. Martin said "Mr. Meyer. the soda
water man." "The he'll you say" answered
Gay. Martin asked him where Gus Will
iams was, but Gay said he didn's know.
HIS TALK WITH M'DERMorT.
The next place Gay said he went was tc
Smith q Kelly's lot TO see il he could get
guano scale to work, but only one mar sue
ceeded that morning, Lawrence Dowdy
Around to Justice McDermott's Office GAY
went and met officer Lee, and he thought
Officer Hartigan also. He remarked tc
them that there mad been another pad mur
der the night before. at the same time tell
ing them what Garwes' CLERK had told him
In little while Justice McDermott came
In, and, after reading the paper, said tc
him: Jim, you live out there. Some Of
those negroes have killed Mr.. Meyer. ano
you ought TO be able To do something about
. 1t. There's $500 in this. The DutchmeI