The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-04-02
WooDsoN GOT TEN YEARS.
Man Who Robbed Mrs. Cunningham
Found G-ilty in Quick Time.

NDuhu o-tAts IN aulck lime.
James A. Woodson, the negro crook
who robbed Mrs. T. NJ Cunningham
Jr., of her purse on Monday. week
ago, was tried and convicted of this
offense in the Superior Court yester-
day and sentenced by Judge Barrow
to serve a term of ten years in the
penitentiary of the state. 1t was a
quick grist for the proverbially slow
wheels of justice to grind out
Mr.. r. L. Colding, solicitor general
pro tenn, prosecuted for the state,
while Mr.. j. R. Myrick appeared for
the defense. Mrs. Cunningham told
clearly and in a way very damaging
to Woodson of the manner in which
her purse had been snatched violently
from her hand. and throughout the rest
of the trial remained an interested
spectator She appeared in court with
her husband and Mr.. and Mrs. T. M.
Cunningham, Sr.
There was no escape for Woodson
from the coil of guilt in which he was
involved by the testimony given from
the stand. Mrs. Cunningham said
he had applied to her for a situation
as butler only a few days before the
commission of the crime, and though
she could not see his face when he
took her purse, as he had pulled his
hat over his eyes, the size and general
appearance of the robber, so absolutely
reSembled those of Woodson she was
morally certain
The story of the chase after the es-
Gaping criminal, his attempt to hide
under a house, the chase under il and
then from out it's shelter and his final
arrest, was told from the stand as it
was told in the Morning News the day
after the commission of the crime. l..
N. Pollard, the mail carrier who eff
fected the arrest, made most admira-
BILE witness: he was corroborated I'm
every material and immaterial partic-
ular by other witnesses, and Wood
sons own statement was rebutted at
every point.
The defendant said he had seen the
actual thief making his escape and
Joined in the chase after him. He had
followed the man he saw snatch the
purse under the house and then out and
over the fence, only to see the thief get
away and to be stopped himself by
Pollard.
AS has been said this story was alb
solutelv rebutted. Those who took
part in the chase testified that. only
one person had gone under the house,
and Pollard that only one had come
out on the other side. Pollard was
holding Woodson when a young man,
Joseph N. Smith, came up and
assisted in completing the arrest. To
add to the already total demolition
of Woodson's story, it was shown from
the stand that Mrs. Cunningham's
purse had been found the next morning
just at the point where the struggle
between him and the two men who
arrested him had taken place.
With the arguments of counsel and
the charge of the court to guide it's
deliberations the jury retired and in
twenty minutes returned a verdict OF
guilty. 1t was expected. Judge Bar
rows sentence of ten years in the pen
itentiary is just half the term he might
have inflicted upon the defendant, and
the general opinion was that Woodson
got off exceedingly light.
He has been a very fortunate knave.
Last December he was tried for rob-
berry and acquitted, while on another
occasion grand jury, when he was
presented for the same offense, failed
to return a true bill against him. He
was arrested for the burglary of the
residence of Mr.. C. H. Gibbes, in The
Meadows, but got out of this scrape
because of the lack of evidence. For
tune turned at last and the opportu-
nifty now afforded him to mediate
upon his past exploits is the result.