Arizona republican., 1904-10-15
CONVICTION OF PALnER
There Was a Time When He Seemed
 to Have Fighting Chance.

A jury late last night found L. W. Palmer, late agent of the Singer Sew ing Machine company at this place, s guilty of embedding funds of the con cern. The case was before the court all day It seemed hopeless for Pal mer from the beginning but as it pro- ceeded through the day he seemed to make a better showing than had been expected and there were SO many op- portunities for reasonable doubt that it was by no means sure that he would net be convicted. The jury must also have been impressed for it was more i than four hours in arriving at a yer | diet. The case was submitted about r fo'clock and it was not until after eight l that it was announced that an agree meRt had been reached
 | Palmer was arrested last June He had been in the employ of the Singer l Sewing Machine company for long time and for more than year h. had been in charge of the Phofnix branch. q Last June, Charles Roe, an inspector for the company, came here and the arrest of Palmer followed It was found that he was short in his ac- counts with the company to the ex- tent of $25S.50. Roe said that when he asked Palmer about it he admitted his dedication and said that he had lost the money at roulette. He first said that he had lost some of his otyn which he could not afford to lose and in order to get it back had sent the money of the company after it, which never came back. A very slight defense was offered at the preliminary examination and Palmer was held to the grand jury.
 He has all along claimed to be conf dent of acquittal. He went on trial yestaTday with a light heart for what he regarded as an suspicious thing had happened. He had received a letter from a sifter-in-law at Durango, Col, saying that there had been born to his wife baby girl, that the baby was ore to be proud of and that his wife had come safely out of the ordeal.
 The greater part of the testimony for
 the territory consisted of the evidence
 of Roe and certain letters and tele-
 grams which had been sent .b-' Palmer
 to the Denver office Of the company
 concerning the alleged shortage. Roe
 repeated the statement that he had
 made at the preliminary examination
 concerning the admission made to him
 by Palmer that he had gambled the
 cotnpany's money away.
 All of this was denied by Palmer = when he took the stand He further
 stated that he had not been the mere
 agent of the company but the ma
 chimes which he had sold had been con El signed to him at q fixed price and that Fl they were charged against him. His 8 commission consisted of whatever he
 could sell them for above that price.
 He also said that the company was
 owing him in commissions S215. While
 he was a t Albuquerque. before coming zT to Phoenix. he had sold ten machine " to a dealer by the name of Tenbroeck
 10 be paid for by installments. One
 half of the monthly mstallments were
 to be paid to Palmer and the other half
 to the company until the commission
 of Palmer abova the fixed price should S be paid. He said that he had received
 no part of the commission due him or these machines and there were beside
 other commissions due him from the T company for other sales.
 Another defense was that a specific
 demand for the return of the money 5 alleged to be due from him to thr
 company had never been made. Tn, 2'iS, laws of this territory require that sucl lg demand must pTecede the crime O r embezzlement. Roe said that ne haC -' made such a demand but Palmer sait s. that Roe had merely asked him how
 soon he could make good the shortage
 The case was submitted without ar
 eument and the court instructed tn
 jury. Regarding the matter of the de n mand the court told the jury that i A must have been formal and specific. I < Roe had only asked when Palmer coul' pay the money it was the duty of tn
 jury to acquit the court also instruct
 cd that if it should appear to the 'jur,
 from the evidence that the machine d, had been sold to Palmer at a ike a. price and had not been consigned t
 him as an agent, there should be or verdict of acquittal. If the prosecutiO ; had failed to prove each one of tn - material allegations of the complaint ...,. the jury should acquit-
 :. Frank Davidson, wlio pleaded guilt '' to grand laI ceny in stealing a lot ( :: jewelry from Mrs. Josephine LunC z. was sentenced to forty months at YU :; ma, the sentence to date from his al :. rest May 2O
 < Fecundf Flor es, the youth who Ina E pleaded guilty tOl horse stealing, wa :. sentenced to enc year in the reforl .:' school. Yesterday was the last day o = which such a sentence could be impo' =. ed, for the boy will be sixteen years ol 4 today.
 z. BaIio Medina, who had pleaded n z. guilty to an indictment for burglar :' withdrew his plea and pleaded guilt !. to burglary in the second degree. I 7. will be sentenced today. This is all 3' the day set for the sentencing of Vire .: Starr. who pleaded guilty to chi < stealing in the abduction of Maud Ba 2 lzer for immoral purposes.
 i. In the case of Lena E1dredge again i Fred Eldredge on the ground of desc sr 1 4t,o ,1o ;D+ief x,-os rrYa v1f tod q dp0re