He was convicted of robbery in the Long Island Sound, but as there was disagreement over the question of jurisdiction between the two judges who heard the post-trial motion (Judge Mahlon Dickerson and Supreme Court Justice Robert Cooper Grier), the case was referred to the Supreme Court by certificate of division.

[8] Jonathan and his brother Elijah J. Leete subsequently bought the 30-ton sloop Spray, funded in part by a mortgage their father took out on his farm.

[8]On March 15, 1860, the Spray departed its home port of Guilford on a voyage to New York City, in the company of other vessels.

[8] Webb sailed to Little Egg Harbor, finding the Lucinda and its captain and hearing Willis's account of the collision.

[12] Webb made no attempt to detain Jackalow,[14] who accompanied him ashore in a small row boat before immediately disappearing into a crowd.

[14] There, the harbor police took charge of the Spray and began retrieving items from the partially submerged cabin, including the captain's bed, which was stained and splattered with blood.

[11] At 11:30 am, March 27, recognizing his description from a newspaper story, the engineer and brakeman of a train, from Philadelphia to Jersey City, crossing the Hackensack Bridge, spotted Jackalow running towards the woods.

Jacobus and Douglass pursued Jackalow, while Wilson and Sanford took the car to Newark, hired a horse, and set out to intercept him on the road.

[5] Jackalow was taken to the Jersey City police station, where in search conducted by Assistant Superintendent Woodruff bags of gold and silver worth about $400, were found tied to his person.

Voorhees opposed the adjournment and moved for Jackalow's immediate release on the ground that there was no jurisdiction because no crime had been proved to have been committed.

[19] On Monday, April 4, U.S. Attorney Garret S. Cannon took over the prosecution and moved that Jackalow be transferred to the U.S. Marshall in the Essex County Jail.

Voorhies again objected to jurisdiction, arguing that if the alleged murder was committed in the Long Island Sound it could only be tried in New York.

Further, he argued that he had jurisdiction on the grounds that the murder was committed between the state of New York and the Norwalk Islands, and Jackalow's robbery had in any case continued until his arrival in Barnegat.

A reporter from the Newark Daily Advertiser visited Jackalow and found him to be intelligent, noting that he spent most of his time reading but was not proficient in spoken English.

[21] Jackalow's indictment, in the United States Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey, was scheduled for Tuesday, September 25.

[23] The grand jurors were sworn, and Justice Grier instructed them on the law, specifically the Act of 1820, which provided: If any person shall, upon the high seas, or in any open roadstead, or in any haven, basin or bay, or in any river where the sea ebbs and flows, commit the crime of robbery in or upon any of the ship's company of any ship or vessel, or the lading thereof, such person shall be adjudged to be a pirate, and, being thereof convicted before any Circuit Court of the United States for the district into which he shall be brought, or in which he shall be found, shall suffer death.

[23] But, on September 27, while the grand jury was still sitting, Jonathan Leete's clothed body was recovered in Goose Creek, Jamaica, Queens.

The Leete family offered their opinion that Elijah had been at the wheel, Jackalow at the lookout, and Jonathan asleep in the berth prior to the murders.

)[25] On Saturday, October 6, the grand jury heard testimony from Joseph Langdon, the crew of the Lucinda, and a carman from Brooklyn.

On the motion of U.S. Attorney Cannon, a special term of the circuit court[d] was appointed to meet in Trenton, on the third Tuesday in January, to try the case.

Jackalow moved to compel the attendance of Dr. Theodore R. Vanck, Robert J. Dalton, and Professor George Hammell Cook of Rutgers College.

The testimony tended to prove that: the Spray and Lucinda had collided; Jackalow, brandishing a hatchet, had refused to allow anyone else aboard; Capt.

"[36] The following day, Dutcher, followed by U.S. Attorney Cannon, argued that the Sound was "uninclosed waters of the ocean outside the jaws of land."

Rather than halt the trial, Dickerson proposed to have the jury return a special verdict, and, if Jackalow was convicted, to argue a motion for arrest of judgment before a "full bench" (i.e. Dickerson plus Justice Grier riding circuit)[g] at the next term in March, and, if the panel was divided, to certify the question to the Supreme Court by certificate of division.

As for the location, the jury found that the Spray "at that time was lying on the waters adjoining the State of Connecticut, between Norwalk Harbor and Westchester county, in the State of New-York, and at a point five miles eastward from Lyon's Point, one and a half miles from the Connecticut shore at low water mark.

[43] Grandin put forward various reasons to arrest the judgment: because the Judge refused to charge the jury as to the evidence of the ownership of the gold and silver; because the Judge refused to charge the jury that the coat was taken from [Jonathan Leete] by violence ... because the first count of the indictment is uncertain and insufficient.

All the testimony bearing upon this question, whether of maps, surveys, practical location, and the like, should be submitted to them under proper instructions to find the fact.

"[58] Thus, the Times predicted that Jackalow would be sentenced and that his counsel would attempt a motion for a new trial "upon the ground of the illegality of the verdict.

"[63][64] That April, Voorhees filed a writ of attachment against Jackalow for unpaid attorney's fees, and the Leetes' executors were said to be contemplating similar action.

"[63] In part, Jackalow "attracted considerable attention" because "[w]ith the nation at war, the federal government properly was concerned with its authority at sea and the safety of American shipping, even though the case was not directly related to the rebellion.