The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-15
GUILTY, SAID JURY
,ywAN RICHARDS. MURDERER,
Condemned TO DIE NOV. e.
IN TEN BRIEF MINUTES
r uRY FOUND THE VERDICT
THAT MEANT DEATH.

NATION for New Trial Will be Made
md the Defendant VIII Not Die on
.be Day Fixed for His Execution.
no killed Hagar Robinson, a Wo-
IAN With Whom He Had Been
Living. on Sept. 1.-THE Story of
she Crime as Told From the Stand.
,he Nurderer's Desperate Effort to
rscope and Final Capture-Trem-
,Jad rs Death Sentence Was Read.
sherman Richards, slayer of Hager
pobinson. a woman with whom he had
.oep living. was found guilty of muir
sor nv a Jury in the Superior Court
yesterday and sentenced by Judge Sea-
srook to pay the penalty of his crime
IN the gallows on Nov. %. A motion
Cor q new trial will be made, however,
ord the condemned murderer will not
Ala m the day appointed by the solemn
Judgment of the court.
When Richards entered the court
room Yesterday morning and took his
coat by his counsel, Mr.. John E. My
ricl he wore his right arm in a sling.
nuring his effort to escape, after the
oornn,ission of the homicide, he was
sbo+ in the arm by one of the several
officers then taking part in the chase
and attempting his arrest, and rather
seriously wounded. From this wound
he has not yet recovered.
In the selection of the jury the pris-
and eight went off for cause. The fol-
lowing were selected to try the case:
John H. Wilder, Arthur H. Harden,
Dowse B. Rustin, August l.. Muller,
Francis Harte, Fred A. Leonard,
Charles E. Suits, Henry Suffer, j.
Stark Clay, John O'Gorman, William
6 Harrison, and j. X. Englerth.
Sherman's Plea.
Richards was arraigned by the solic>
itor general after the jury had been
imnanelled and to the solemn question
propounded to him answered, Not
guilty"
The first witness examined on behalf
Of the state was County Coroner John
G. Keller. DR.. Keller stated that ne
had seen the dead woman within a
short time after she was snot, between
the hours of 1920 and IL o'clock, on
the night of Sept. II. Death had re-
suited from a pistol shot wound in the
left breast Police Surgeon Elton >
Osborne gave similar testimony.
The first important witness was Ida
Foster. a negro woman who occupied
the adjoining room to that in Wmch
Hagar Robinson had been shot. She
had heard quarreling and curslng In
the next room and then the sound OF
blows being inflicted. She had heard
the Robinson woman crying:
stop, Sherman! Stop, Sherman"
There were more blows, and again
the voice of the woman, crying, stop
Stop" Then the pistol shot rang out
two men tumbled from the room anc
after them the wounded and bleeding
woman AS she ran she cried out:
Sherman has shot me; 1 am going
to die
The woman ran down to the foot OF
the steps and to the door of a house
in which lived Matte Hill, and there
she fell and died
Two other negro women, Hattie Civ
ems and Annie Bland, told substantial.
ly the same story. They had heard the
woman scream and then the report Of
the revolver; they had seen the woman
run out of the house and they ha6
watched her die. This was the direct
evidence for the state.
The first witness for the defendant
was John Taylor, a negro man who
was in the room with Richards anC
the woman when the fatal shot wa:
fired. The contradictory and evident.
~ false stories that Taylor has pre-
viously told as to the killing had in
Volved him in the net of suspicion, anC
ne has been held as an accessory before
the fact.
When the Shot Was Fired.
He said that he had gone to the
woman S room some twenty minute:
before she and Richards arrived anc
mad found there her two little children
asleep on one of the beds. He was sit.
ting in rocking chair when the wo.
man and Richards came in. Both OF
them had been drinking. They were
oehlnd him all the time, so that hi
could not see what they were doing
but he heard no fussing.
Then the pistol shot rang out i
Was the first thing that had attractet
MS attention and he turned to see the
woman with her hands clasped to hel
wounded breast, and to hear her say
sherman, you've shot me-"
he was frightened and started to ge
out of the house hut Pioha rdS uo