The Portland daily press., 1898-01-14
DAT At THE BAR.
On Trial Charged With RObbing a
Grave.
SENSATIONAL TESTIMONY IN THE
WEsTBR00K CASE.

Principal witness for the State Was Jos
epb W. Rounds Who Charges Angus
tus pay With Forcing Him to Rob
Mrs. Roberts Grave and Assisted Him
i, Observation-Disclosures for the State
All In.
Yesterday there was called up in the
Superior court before Judge Bonney one
o1.he most curious cases which has ever
been tried in Portland. 1t was the case
of the state against Augustus Day ofWest-
brook who is charged with having on
October 4th last, dug up the grave OF
Martha Roberts nndssremoving Shsrefrom
the body. The state is represented IN
this trial by County Attorney George
LIBBY, while William Lyons, Esq, OF
Westbrook is the attorney for. the defense.
When the case was called it was about
eleven o. clock and there were present
large number of people from WestbrooK
who have been waiting rather impatient
ly for the case to come up. Augustus
Day, the respondent, is short thick set
man with bald head, mutton chop
whiskers and red face. He sat beside his
attorney Jast outside the bar and fol-
lowed the testimony very carefully. The
rrinciple Witness for the state who hassal-
ready pleaded guilty to the charge of
grave robh.pg was Joseph W. Rounds.
His testimony was very sensat ional and
rs he is not in full possession of his me n
tai faculties he said things and did things
in Yesterdays trial which added not q
little spice to the proceedings. The state
rested it's case very much sooner than was
anticipated, after calling upen a com
tentatively few witnesses. The defense
will begin this morning at ten o'clock.
In his opening remarks MI. Libby
stated that Martha Ellen Roberts, wife
of John H. Roberts, died Aug. IA, 1897
and was buried Aug. II. On Got ober Sd
Calvin Barbour of Westbrook sexton
and caretaker of the cemetery where Mrs.
Roberts's body WAS buried passed the
grave and saw nothing wrong about it.
On the morning of Got. 9Th Mr.. Barbour
discovered that the soil about the grave
had been disturbed and that the footprints
of two men led away towards the pond
near the cemetery. One of these tracks
WAS made by person wearing pointed
shoe and the other track was made by a
person WEARING square toed shoe. On
opening the grave which was suspected TO
have been desecrated the box which con-
aimed the coffin was found to have been
b 1ken open, the coffin plate removed, the
uody gone. On the morning of October
Chiefly Marshal Knight of Westbrook
and Deputy Sheriff Banks found the
missing body of Mrs. Roberts near the
shore OF Beaver Pond.
qhe State claims that the respondent
Day called at Mrs. EimhalEs shortly be-
fore the body of Mrs. Roberts was re-
moved and told her that he had job for
which he was to get $500. Day wanted
Harry Rounds, Mrs. KimbaA's son, to
help him. Day refused to tell Mrs. Kim
la!l what the job was. Mrs. Kimbail
told Day that Harry would do no work
unless he knew beforehand what,it was.
Mrs Kimball suggested that Day take
Joseph W. Rounds to help him. Day
told Mrs. KimbalI that he didn't want
Joe because "Joe would tell of it,"
That night Mrs. Kinhall heard wbis-
lie outside of her house and her son Joel
went out to see who it. was. Day told
Jos to get shovel and axe and go with
him. Joe did go and went away with
Day. The next morning Joe was burn
ing 'some rags in the kitchen stove and
Day was then present. A month after
this Mrs. Kimban moved with her family
to Kennebunk After she moved from
Nestbrook the woman who moved in the