The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-16
ETHEREDGE CONVICTED
Ex-sHERIFF FOUND GUILTY OF
 BURGLARY.
Broke Into Coart House, 1t is Believed, in order to Secure Indictments Which Had Been Found
 Against Him.

Green Etheredge, Tor four years the Re- publican Sheriff of Lawrence County. was yes..I~-.. .---~-.5ca convicted of burglary, and now occupies a cell in the l cou.. y jail at Moulton.
 l The crime for which Etheredge was convicted, was the burglary of the Court House. In 1896 the term of office of Etheredge expired, and since that time he has led varied existence. That his life was not strictly a moral one was attested by the indictments which the grand jury of Lawrence County found against him in 1899, charging the offense of selling liquor | without a license, and these same in dictments seem to have been the cause of the downfall of the man.
 In January, 1900, the office of the Cir cult Clerk of the county was entered
 and about eighty afidavits and in- dictments. charging Various offenses, were taken. Prior to this time the edge said that he intended to break into the ofiice and get the indictments against him. Acting upon the pre- | sumption that the Etheredge indict- ments were all that would be sought for. the Clerk removed these from his office and locked them up in the safe | of the Probate Judge. Again, he hard-
 iy believed. notwithstanding the infor-
 nation that he had received. that so daring a crime would be attempted. On the night in question. party l had met in a private room in Moulton | for the purpose of having a game of
 cards. In this party was the ex.Sher- | fir. About 3 o'clock in the morning the party broke up and though Etheredge lived about 200 yards from the scene | of the card party. the evidence showed l that he did not get home for more than two hours after that time. Some repairs were being made in the Clerks office, and the evidence in the case showed that under the window that was entered, had been left a box. in
 the bottom of which was some lime and sand.
 The next morning 1t was found that the office had been entered and sus- picion pointed to Etheredge. His home | was visited by the officer and he was found in bed. Under the side of the | bed. the evidence states. was found his shoes. covered with lime and ashes. In the fireplace of his room was the
 ashes of what Is supposed to have been
 a lot of burned papers. Tracks were found in the box of ashes and lime, and the shoes fitted the tracks. Tracks were also found leading from the place | of the card party to a saw mill close by, which 'corresponded with the shoes. From this saw mill had been taken a piece of iron, which it is supposed was used in breaking open the window of the office and this iron was found in Ithe office. Etheredge had preliminary trial and was bound over to await the | action of the grand jury. which con- vened soon after and which failed to
 return a true bill against him. His friends believed that he was the victim of circumstances, but the officers of the
 State thought differently and worked l incessantly
 | Link after link was fastened togeth-
 CT until a chain of circumstantial evil
 dence wac. woven that completely en- | wrapped the defendant. A witness | came forward who swore that Ether
 edge had told him of his contemplated l crime. Another. who testified that he l was also under indictment for the same | offense with which Etheredee stood
 charged. and that short while before
 the commission of the offense. the de- | fendant had made a bargain with this
 witness, by the terms of which the
 witness was to pay Etheredge BIO to procure for him the indictment from
 the Clerks office.
 l The chain was not yet complete, but
 it was fast fastening together. Finally lone day a negro man came into the Ysheriff's office with two of the missing
 indictments and gave them to the dep
 uty sheriff in charge. This negro
 stated that a white man named Wess
 Montgomery had given them to him.
 Montgomery. while known to be a wild | and reckless man, was also known to
 be a man of implicit truth. He was hunted up by the deputy. and the tale | that he unfolded fastened the crime on Etheredge. His statement was that a | few days prior Etheredge had come to his home and told him that he knew
 where some of the papers that had been | stolen were: that negro had them. He again came to Montgomery's house and
 reaching down. pulled three of these papers out of his sock.
 He told Montgomery that negro
 named Jim Gibson had given them to
 him and he wanted Montgomery to take them and give them to another negro
 and have this negro give them to the deputy sheriff with the statement that he had found them under a church. This the negro did ana was promptly arrested. He then told the whole tale and was fully corroborated by Mont
 gomery. The next grand jury indicted Etheredge and when the case was call ed yesterday. 1t was found that not only the indictment against Etheredge was gone but also the indictment record. il book of some 400 pages. A grand jury was then in session and another indict-
 ment quickly returned and the defend ant put on trial with the result as here stated.
 Etheredge has used every means
 known to the law to secure his acquit-
 tai. When the case was first called for trial he had it removed to the Cir cult Court of the United States upon an affidavit made by him. alleging that he was an officer of the government. engaged in the revenue department. and that this prosecution against him was a conspiracy.
 The United States Circuit Court de- cided against him and he carried the case by appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, where 1t was dis missed and sent back to the State courts. The defendant had some of the best legal assistance in the State and fought the case at every opening. His plea was not guilty. He claimed
 that he got drunk, the night of the
 ing in that condition, and intimated
 that the whole prosecution was con-
 spiracy put on foot and engineered by
 his enemies.
 Sentence has not yet been passed by
 the court, and an appeal will be taken.
 Many exceptions were reserved by the
 attorneys for the defendant and the
 fight is not yet ended yet as the yer
 dict of the jury was read, one could but
 feel sorry for this man, who had once
 been a power .n the politics of Law
 renee County. before the constitutional