Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1911-11-23
Only Eyewitness 20 SenSa-
tiOnal Denver Tragedy Gives
Damaging Evidence Against
Fair Defendant,
BOTH BULLETS HIT
VICTIM IN THE BACK
Prosecution Introduces Much
Evidence Tending to Prove
Murder Was Premedtatedi
Revolver is Identified.
iBy Morning Journal Special Leased wlre.l

tby morning Jourual spetlal Leased Nlre.l
Denver. Nov. 22.-The only known
eyewitness to the shooting OF
Charles A. Patterson, for whose murd-
er his wife, Gertrude Gibson Patterson
is on trial before Judge G. w. Allen
in the district court, was placed on
the stand today He is A. h. Shugart,
carpenter. whose home Is near the
spot where Patterson was killed.
on the morning of September 25,
last, he testified. he was stepping from
tool shed in the rear of his home
when he heard two shots fired in
rapid succession. Looking In the di-
rection from which the sound came
he say, some three hundred feet away,
a man upon his lands and knees, and
a woman, revolver in hand, standing
over hiEl
IL shouted TO Ter to stop" said
Shugar;, "and after ! called to her she
shot again. The man lurched forward
on his face and stiffened out.
"Then.r Shugart continued, II start
ed on a run towards them. | had to
80 around my house and when next
/ came in view the woman was stoop-
ing over the PROSTATE form. As | ap-
preached she ran into the house In
front of which the shooting had oc-
Cured.
when | reached the man he was
still gasping. | turned him over and
asked vino he waa and Whit had hap
pened. but he was beyond the power
of speech"
when you turned the man over,
did you find anything" asked Special
Prosecutor Horace C. Benson.
II found a revolver" Shdgart re-
piled, und went on to say tina. he
placed the weapon in his pocket.
Here the revolver with which Pat
terson was killed, was handed to the
witness and he Immediately identified
II.
Shugart then went on to describe
how he had entered the house t.
which the woman had fled, found her
In a chair in the sitting room, APP
parently in a faint, but how, when he
unbuttoned her jacket to search her
for " eapon, she opened her eyes ana
looked ut him.
IL asked her who the man outside
Vas.' declared the witness, ''an1 she |
answered, He is. my husband md he
wrOrgtd me.
When he asked her who she was
and where she lived, Shugart de,laf-
ed. she refused to talk.
Throughout Shugart's examination
Mrs. Patterson preserved the imm0-
bility that has characterized her dur
ing the trial so far IL she felt airy |
emotion when she heard from the
lips of another the story Of how she
had killed her husband there was no
visible sign.
Cross examination by Attorney @.
~ Hilton for the defense failed TO
shake Shugart's testimony. The cross
examination, however, seemingly dis
closed the fact that the sympathies
of the witness were decidedly with
the prosecution, there being a mark
ed change in his attitude when At
torney Hilton took him In hand.
Previous to the examination of
Shugart the state introduced witness
es to substantiate its claim that the
killing of Patterson was premeditated.
George w. Strain, a young illustra-
tor of Denver, told the jury of events
at Mrs. Patterson's bungalow on the
Saturday night preceding the shoot
ing at Mrs. Patterson's home, he said.
and had come for a kodak he mad left
there. He admitted he came armed
upon this occasion because Mrs. Pat
terson had warned him of her hus-
bands violent temper Patterson ana
a friend appeared at the house unex-
pectedly, he said, and Mrs. Patterson
hurriedy went into the house Pat
terson ordered him from the premises
In threatening manner the witness
said, and he marched Patterson and
his friend off at the point OF revol-
yer. Strain told how Mrs. Patterson
ran after her husband and they went
away together and how, after her re-
turn she upbralded him for jeopardiz-
ing the chances Of success in her di-
vorce action AS he was leaving strain
said, Mrs. Patterson told him OF the
fear she entertained of her husband
and asked him to leave his revolver,
which he did. He identified the wea-
pom with which Patterson was killed
as the one he had left with Mrs. Pat
terson.
Witnesses were introduced to show
that Mrs. Patterson had called her
husband on the telephone at the sani-
tarlum on the morning that the killing
took place and that he had answered.
II don't ever want to see you again,
and to show that she had waited at
a spot near where the shooting oc- !
CURED for considerable length OF +
time and that when Patterson arrived
at the place where she was and saw