The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-08
LACEY TURNED LOOSE
The Evidence Against Him Was
Insufficient.
ORDERED BY THE COURT
He Was Charged With Being One of
the Highwaymen Who Held Up
the Reception and Foun-
tain Road Houses.

James Lacey, the partner of John
Mason, one Of the Reception and F'oun-
tain road house robbers, was turned
loose yesterday by the jury under in
structions from Judge Clancy, who did
not consider the states evidence
against Lacey sufficient to convict.
There is little doubt in the minds of
any one acquainted with the case that
if Lacey is innocent Mason is also, but
Mason's guilt was proven beyond any
question. County Attorney Connolly
was of the opinion that there was suf-
ticient evidence against Lacey to put
him on his defense and allow the jury
to pass on the case, but the court did
not agree with him, and on motion of
Laceys counsel the jury was instructed
to return verdict of not guilty. The
substance Of the proof against Lacey
was that he was a partner of the man
Lyons at the race track in the peanut
business and that on the night of the
robbery, on July 8. they disappeared
and did not return to the race track,
and later Lyons was positively iden-
tilted as one of the three robbers. Wit
nesses also testified that Lacey, Ma
son and Lyons answered the descrip-
ton of the three robbers and that when
the man Warren, who was held up,
called at the Jail to try to identify
the men under arrest, Lacey jumped
back and tried to avoid Warren. The
latter also recognized Lacey's voice as
similar to that which commanded him
to throw up his hands. Before and after
the robbery Lacey Lyons and Mason
Were together, and Wilbur Travis tes-
titled that he saw Lacey get a bundle
out of Chinest restaurant few days
after the hold-up and he told Travis
that the bundle contained a revolver
and that the revolver had a history.
He said he did not want to have it
found in his possession, and he took it
up to Mason's room and gave it to
him. When Mason and Lacey We're eX-
aiming the stolen watch in their
room, in the presence of Travis, Lacey
offered no explanation concerning 1t,
and must have known that Mason had
brought it from the hiding place in the
western part of town, as testified to
by Travis. When the police raided the
room Mason had the watch under the
bed clothes and Lacey, by his silence.
acquiesced in it, and, like a guilty
man, he remarked when the officers
appeared. It's a pinch and when
Travis told the officers about the watch
in the bed Lacey called him a farm
er" and "pickaninny" for peaching. At
the Jail Lacey told the officers that
they might just as well turn Travis
loose, as he knew nothing about the
watch. At the room, when the officers
came in, Lacey tried to quiet the sus-
picions of Travis that something was
wrong by telling him it was a. usual
thing for police to search lodging
houses in cities. The above is practi-
cally the evidence the state had against
Lacey, but If the defense had been COM
PEELED to introduce it's alibi testimony
the case for the state would have been
strengthened, as it was in Mason's
case, and Lacey's conviction could not
have been prevented. At the conclusion
of the states testimony, however. La
cey's attorney made a motion that the
court instruct the jury to find the de-
PENDANT not guilty. The judge said he
would sustain the motion, and wrote
out an instruction advising the jury to
find verdict of not guilty, but inform
ing them that they were not bound
Connolly wanted to call the courts at
tention to the evidence against Lacey,
but the court would not listen to him.
The jury retired at 1910 o'clock, but it
was evident that the courts instruction
aroused some debate, for the verdict
was not agreed to until nearly II
o'clock. Lacey was discharged from
custody and left the court house with
his attorney.
After Lacey had been released the
proprietor of the Fountain road house,
a man named Bell, put the county at
torney into possession of some facts
that may have an important bearing
on the robbery. He said a boy had
told him that the three robbers were
brought from town to the road houses
in a hack, and that they returned to-
the city the same way after the hold
ups. If true, that fact would appear
to implicate some hack driver in the
robberies. The information, however,
is of no value now, so far as the three
men arrested are concerned. as Lyons
and Lacey have been turned loose and
Mason has been convicted.
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