Adams County news. [volume] (Ritzville, Wash.) 1898-1906, 1899-01-11

Ol HE lulprlSOnHnenC IN tne penlten-
tiary for the killing of Lon Conley in
in Lincoln. county in 1896. Last
night the following Associated Press
dispatch was received:
Olympia, Wash, Jan. 9.-The SUI
preme Court today affirmed the judg-
ment of the lower court in the case
OF A. ]. Symes, appellant, VS.. State OF
Washington, respondent. - Spokane
Review of yesterday.
Alfred ]. Symes was arrested in
Sprague, Lincoln Co., June "a, '95, by
Louis A. Conlee, a constable residing
there, upon information that war;
rant had been issued in Adams county
for SyDles upon the charge of hog
stealing. Mr.. Conlee arrested Symes
in the street, took a forty-fve Colts re-
volver from him, searched him and
supposed he was disarmed. Symes
protesting against being locked in the
Sprague Jail induced Conlee to take
him to Ritzville ON horseback, assur-
ing Conlee that he would accompany
him peaceably, and the officer and his
charge started on their journey. The
next morning Mr.. Conlee was found
four miles from Ritzville in Adams
county, with six bullet holes in his
dead body. symes skipped the coun-
try. A reward of $500 caught him
in Montana on Aug. 4th, 1895, on the
Bitter Root river 16 miles from Mis-
soula. On Nov. q, 1895, symes, after
hard fought trial at Ritzville, was
found guilty of murder in the first
degree On January 5, 1896, Judge
Upton of Walla Walla, who presided
at the trial, reduced the verdict to
murder in the second degree, and sem
fenced the defendant to 10 years at
hard labor in the State penitentiary.
An appeal was taken to the Supreme
Court brought about by citizens who
were enraged at the ruling of the trial
judge. After serving % months time
at Walla Walla the Supreme Court
held that Judge Upton had grossly
erred in his action and ordered new
trial. Symes was brought from the
penitentiary upon Remititur from
the Supreme Court and an order from
the Superior Judge of this district
and again landed in the Adams coun-
to jail in Oct, 1897. Motion for
change OF venue was granted and
Judge G. H. Neal sent the case to
Whitman county where it was again
tried in 1897, where verdict of man
slaughter was rendered and Judge
Mcdonald gave him Is years at hard
labor. Again appealed to the Supreme
Court, (Which the above dispatch re-
fers to- doubtless his time will be
about Is years instead OF life impris-
onment, as the Supreme Court sim
ply affirms the lower court. Symes
is now in Colfax Jail where he has
been for over a year, but will proba-
bly, be promptly sent where he Justly
belongs. He is lucky to have saved
his neck, and had it not been that
Adams county had cool, brave and
dutiful sheriff, just at that critical
time, Symes might now be under
the sod. The writer wildly recalls
the incident when Symes undertook
to trick him into unlocking the Jail
door, and had we fallen into the trap
we would not be here to relate it now,
as upon the following day Sheriff
Thompson went into the cell and re-
lieved the prisoner OF 3S Smith &
Wesson revolver loaded to the guards
and a half box of cartridges. His by
plays at the witnesses before the jury
in his last trial only go to indicate his
cunning nature which was naturally
followed up from the time he commit
ted the cowardly murder of poor Lou
Conlee by emptying che contents of
deadly Colts into the back OF his I'M
suspecting victim. The case for the
prosecution was ably conducted by
l
Hon. o. r. Holcomb, then prosecut-
ing attorney, who certainly did a
massive pile of work in the case for the
people of this county for small COM
pensation. Attorneys Clinton Staser
and W. W. Zent were also interested
in the case and assisted Mr.. Holcomb
a portion of the time, but the whole
responsibility fell upon Mr.. Holcomb
and he did his duty fearlessly and
well. 1t has cost Adams county $I0,-
600 to punish this redhandeJ murder
err but the money has been Justly ex-
pended.