The Sun. — 1850-08-15 (London, England)

LIAMS.) THE COALPIT HEATH MURDER.-SENTENCE OF DEATH. [We brought our report of this trial up to the departure of the last train yesterday. We now conclude it.] Ann Cohen deposed that she called at the prisoner's house a few days after Christmas last. While she was there, Edmund Curtis, the prisoner's present husband, came, and he and the prisoner went out, and were absent about a quarter of an hour. When the prisoner returned, which she did alone, witness left, and while going away saw Curtis enter the house, and the door was closed after him. A short time afterwards witness met Mrs. Curtis, who told her that her then husband (Harris) was very jealous of her because Curtis had been there. She added, " But ['ll let him know about that." Her husband (Harris) was three or four years older than the prisoner. Curtis was younger than she was.  - The marriage of the prisoner with her present husband, on the 26th of May, was then proved, and W. Joyner Ellis, Esq., was called to prove that llarris and the prisoner were married. Mr. Ellis stated that in consequence of the rumours which had been circulated to the contrary, he put the question to the prisoner whether she had been married to Harris, and she replied that she had. Witness cautioned her throughout the investigation as to what she said. It was at the adjourned inquest that the prisoner made the statement that she was married to Harris.  Mr. COOKE, for the prisoner, contended that such evidence was inadmissible, but his Lordship admitted it.  Mary Ann Elliott, daughter of the prisoner, was next put in the witness-box, but Mr. Greaves declined to examine her. She was dressed in decent mourning. Mr. Cooke put several questions to her, in answer to which she said that she was the prisoner's daughter by a former husband, named Jennings, and that she was married, but used to live at her mother's occasionally, when out of service. Lived on good terms with ilarris, and he with her mother, except when he was in liquor, which was frequently the case, and then he was quarrelsome. Had heard of the cat getting into her mother's house and eating the butter and meat, but never the tarts. On the 19th of April deceased was sick, and the prisoner took some peppermint tea, which she offered to him, but which he refused. The tea had a smell like that of landanum. The deceased occasionally took magnesia as a medicine. Mr. Choi E then addressed the jury for about an hour and a half, examining the evidence critically, and contending that, although this was undoubtedly a case of suspicion, the facts, as they had been given on oath, were, as consistent with innocence as with guilt. The question for the jury to decide was whether the arsenic (which there was no doubt had been the cause of death) had been administered to the deceased wilfully, for the purpose of destroying life; and, if so, by whom. He contended that the suggestions made in the evidence, that the poison had been administered in tea and in wine, were not borne, out, the witnesses stating that there were no appearances of sediment, or any foreign substance, in the cup. Mr. Herapath, too, had given his opinion that arsenic killed within 24 hours. But here the sickness had extended from the 19th April, before the prisoner had been proved to have bought the poison at Mr. Morton's, until the 30th, when the deceased died. The same symptoms were apparent in the illness of the deceased on the 19th as on the 26th of April. He suggested that the correct version of the unhappy affair was that the deceased (Harris) having been used to take magnesia) which was kept in a particular buffet, bad unfortunately