The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-23
STATE SCORES|N PATTERSON TRIAL Only Eye Witness to Shoot
 ing Testifies REMAINS UNSHAKEN Strain Tells of Relations With Mrs. Patterson and Events That
 Happened Before the
 Shooting

Denver, Col, November 22.-The only
 witness of the shooting of Charles A.
 Patterson, for whose murder his wife,
 Gertrude Gibson Patterson, is now on
 trial before Judge Allen in the district
 court, was placed on the stand today.
 He is A. B. Shugart, carpenter, whose
 home is near the spot where Patterson
 was killed.
 On the morning of September 25 he tes-
 tified he was stepping from shed in
 the rear of his home when he heard two
 shots fired. Looking up he saw, 300 feet
 away, man upon his hands and knees
 and woman, revolver in hand, standing
 over him.
 'I shouted to her to stop,' said Snug
 art, "and Immediately she shot again.
 The man lurched forward on his face
 and stffened out. Running around the
 house saw the woman stopping over the
 prostrate form. As I approached she ran into the house in front of where the shooting had occurred.
 When reached the man he was still
 gaspng. I turned him over and asked who he was and what had happened, but he was beyond speech"
 "When you turned the man over did you find anything?" asked Special Prose- cutor Horace G. Benson.
 1T found a revolver" Shugart replied. The witness identified the revolver. He then described how he followed Mrs. Pat terson into the house she entered and, found her in a chair apparently in a faint. When he unbuttoned her jacket to search her for a weapon she opened her eyes and looked at him.
 q asked her who the man outside was," declared the witness, 'and she answered, he Is my husband and he wronged me- When he sought other information Shugart declared she refused to talk. Cross examination by Attorney Hilton for the defense, failed to shake Shusart's s testimony. Before the examination of Shugart the state introduced evidence to substantiate its contention that the killing of Patterson was premeditated. George G. Strain told the jury of events at Mrs. Patterson's bungalow on
 the Saturday night preceding the
 shooting. He had been In the habit or
 visiting at Mrs. Patterson's home, he
 said. He admitted that he went armed
 on this occasion. because Mrs. Patter-
 son had warned him of her husbands
 violent temper.
 Patterson and friend appeared at
 the house unexpectedly, he said, ana
 Mrs. Patterson hurriedly went into the
 house Patterson ordered him from the premises in a threatening manner, the
 witness said, and he drew pistol and
 marched Patterson and his friend off at
 the point of the revolver
 Strain and Mrs. Patterson ran after her husband and they went away to- gether.
 After her return she upbraided him for jeopardizing the chances of success | in her divorce action, the witness said. | As he was leaving, Strain said, Mrs. Patterson asked him to leave his revol- yer and he compiled.
 Strain identified the weapon with which Patterson was killed as the one he had left with Mrs. Patterson. Wit nesses were introduced in an attempt to show that Mrs. Patterson had called her husband on the telephone at the sanitarium on the morning that the killing took place and that he had an . swered, q don't ever want to see you again."
 It was also testified that she had waited at a spot near where the shoot ing occurred and that when Patterson saw her he started to run away. Later they walked off together. Physicians who conducted the autopsy on Patterson's body testified that he
 had been shot twice In the back, one bullet entering just under the right shoulder blade and passing through his
 shoulder. The other bullet entered just
 under the left shoulder blade and pass
 ed through the heart The second
 wound caused his death. they said.