Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-03-29
HARRIS AND jones
RECEIVE SENTENCE
Fifteen and Twelve Years, Re-
spectively, Imposed In Ne
groes' Cases
TO PENlTENTIARY
Sheriff Hutson and Officer Lase Leave
With the Prisoners for Fl. Madison
Court Finds No Mitigating Circum-
stances and Pleas of Guilty do Pris-
oners No Good.

If "Al" Harris and ED" Jones, the
colored men who, on the night OF jan
uary 80, held up, for the purpose OIL
robbery, and severely cut with a razor
Jacob Lentz and W. III. II. Bowen, con-
siderad that by q plea Of guilty they
could escape stiff sentences to the pen
itentiary, they were mistaken, FOR IN
the district court, shortly after 5
o'clock Tuesday afternoon, Judge
Burnham sentenced the prisoners to
fifteen and twelve years, respectively,
at hard labor at 1T Madison. Sheriff
Hutson and Officer Lage left at this
morning, with the prisoners in charge,
for the penitentialy.
Harris and Jones were indicted by
the March grand jury. three couts APP
pearing against Harris and two
against Jones. Harris, had he stood
trial, would have had to answer to two
charges of assault with intent to COM
NIT murder, and one for robbery.
Jones' part in the holdup was not so
prominent and he was indicted for aid
ing and abetting in the robbery Of
Lentz and assault with intent to COM
nit murder in the Bowen case. Both
men, upon being brought into court,
entered pleas of guilty to the charge Of
assault with intent to commit murder,
and it did not take the court long to
impose the sentences.
Judge Burnham did not waste many
hn y,ric IN, c;y ~
judgment. The court stated that he
could see no mitigating circumstances
in the cases; and shat the recent con-
duct of the prisoners, while in Jail,
showed that they were not very peni-
tent
Harris, who led in the work of rob-
berry and assault, is thoroughly bad
negro. Once he called this city his
home, and for some time prior to
about three years ago, worked at the
Pilgrim. He was inclined to be quar-
relsome, and finally made himself so
obnoxious that Mayor Jones ordered
him out Of town. He remained away
until this winter, having returned only
one day before the Lentz and Bowen
hold-ups were committed. Jones, who
is younger than Harris, has lived here
for several years. He is a, reform
school graduate" and was only dis
charged from the institution a few
years ago. Jones confessed the crime
to the officers the day following his
arrest, and because of this might have
Jared better at the hands of the law had
he not entered into the scheme of Har-
ris, discovered Monday, whereby a
planned escape from Jail, by numbering
Sheriff Hutson If necessary, had been
all but carried out. The prisoners
had made saws from the springs in
their shoes, and had sawed theebars
of their cells, so that they had access
to the corridor. Another prisoner, j
Jacobson, charged with larceny, gave
the scheme away to the Sheriff, and
the men have since been kept in the
closest confinement.
The sentence of Harris to f1fteer
years is the first made on charge OF
assault with intent to commit murder
under the new law. Prior to the pass
age of the law by the last general as
sembly, the maximum penalty for as
sault with intent to commit murder
was ten years. The new law made IL
twenty.
William Newman, of State Center
was Tuesday granted a divorce from
Mrs Amelia Redel-Newman, on the
ground of discretion.