The E.B. Coleman Affair

After selling his ranch, Charley Crouse moved to Vernal, Utah. Once in Vernal, Crouse, along with partner Aaron Overholt, opened up a saloon. Matt Warner’s wife Rose was seeking treatment for cancer in Vernal at the time and, when not caring for her, Warner spent much of his free time in his old friend’s saloon.

In May of 1896 Warner and Bill Wall were drinking together in the saloon when the two men struck a conversation with a man by the name of E.B. Coleman. Coleman fancied himself a prospector and mining promoter and, as fate would have it, offered a proposition to the two men. In exchange for a hundred dollars apiece, Warner and Wall would escort Coleman to his mine in the Uintah Mountains. Believing they were just there to help Coleman close up the camp and store the components at Warner’s ranch for the winter, Warner and Wall quickly agreed.

In reality Coleman and his partner had discovered a deposit of ore in the mountains near Dry Fork. What Coleman neglected to tell them is that three other men, Dave Milton, Ike Staunton and Dick Staunton were in the area prospecting the same area. Milton carried an old grudge against Coleman, claiming Coleman cheated his father out of a mining claim in Deadwood, South Dakota. Figuring he could scare the men off if he hired some muscle, Coleman enlisted Warner and Wall to do his dirty work.

Arriving in the mountains the two parties came across each other. Milton and the Staunton’s weren’t going to be intimidated by Coleman’s show of force and a firefight broke out between the two groups of men. When the smoke cleared, Dave Milton and Dick Staunton were dead and Ike Staunton lay badly wounded.

Feeling his actions were a clear-cut case of self-defense, Warner sent word to town of the firefight. To his surprise, when the officers arrived Warner was arrested along with Wall and Coleman. The three men were locked up in the Uintah County jail back in Vernal. According to Warner, the public outrage against the three men was so great that Sheriff John T. Pope had to place extra guards at the jail for fear of a lynching.

Warner and Wall were later transported to Odgen, Utah to stand trail for first-degree murder. Destitute and rotting in jail, the two men spent three months without ever speaking to a lawyer. Finally, Warner was able to send word to Butch Cassidy. In his letter he told Cassidy that he was broke and in desperate need of an attorney.

In response to his friend’s plea for help, Cassidy and his fellow outlaws robbed the Bank of Montpelier. Cassidy used the money from the robbery to secure the services of his personal lawyer, Douglas A. Preston, to represent Warner.

As a Wyoming lawyer, Preston was unable to personally represent Warner at the trial, so he in turn hired to local attorneys, D.N. Straupp and Orlando W. Powers, as formal representation. The trial began September 8, 1896 with Ogden attorney David Evans and Uintah County prosecutor J.P. Evans leading the prosecution. Despite the deaths of two men, the trial focused only on the murder of Dick Staunton.

Thanks to their team of lawyers, Warner and Wall were convicted of voluntary manslaughter rather than the more serious charge of first-degree murder. In what can only be construed as an outrage, Coleman escaped all charges and walked away a free man. Warner and Wall were sentenced to five years in the Utah State Penitentiary.

Matt Warner entered prison September 21, 1896. While serving his sentence, Rose gave birth to their son, Rex and shortly thereafter died. Warner arranged for an old friend, Frank Taylor, to take his two children on the condition that Taylor would adopt Warner’s son and return Hayda to Warner once he was released from prison. Rex Warner became Rex Taylor and later died when he was sixteen.

After a three year and four month stay, Matt Warner walked out of the Utah State Penitentiary on January 21, 1900. Warner was now thirty-six years old and anxious to reconnect with his daughter and experience life as a free man again. Waiting for him outside the prison was Sheriff Bill Preece who arrested Warner, along with Wall who had also been released, for the murder of Dave Milton.

His freedom taken away before he could begin to experience it and his faith in the law shattered, Warner made plans to escape and return to his outlaw ways. Unbeknownst to Warner, Uintah County district attorney Samuel A. King and Warden Dow from the Utah State Penitentiary were hard at work behind the scenes to get the charges dismissed. Before Warner could make his escape attempt, the pair was able to convince Utah governor Heber Manning Wells to drop the charges.

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