Trial and Sentencing
Events had unfolded far more productively than they had during the Town Coroner's efforts, no doubt in large part because this investigation had a known target from the start.
Justice Losee of Hempstead presided over the trial. The defendants' efforts to distort the facts and to fabricate alibis failed to thwart the prosecution. William Horton of the Jericho Hotel was asked about the hour during which Rhodes sat at his bar, and he swore that the fish peddler had remained sober throughout. Some said otherwise, but no one dared contradict Horton, for his hotel was a respectable establishment, which often hosted meetings of the incumbent County Democratic Party. Other patrons who had been at the Jericho that night did corroborate Horton's testimony. Mary Jane Wood's testimony was believed. Despite her admitting that the Seaman home long had been used to conceal criminal fugitives, the press painted her as a rather admirable and honest woman. The trial's outcome quickly came into focus.
Sag Harbor Corrector, April 24, 1880
Both Weeks and Seaman were convicted of second-degree murder, and they both were sentenced to life imprisonment.
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