The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-17
GUILTY, SAYS
 HESTER JURY Former Railway Mail Clerk Will Appeal. MAY GET TWENTY YEARS Spent Last Night tn the County Jal. Man Who Claimed He Was Held Up. shot In Hand and Robbed of
 sa,s21.5s, s Con-
 yictcd.


 Eugene Hester. an erstwhile trusted employe Of the United States mail ser wise. is in the Montgomery county iail. having been found guilty of stealr ing registered packages and letters contaiping $2.e21.56 from the car on which he was railway mall clerk on January '. 1905. He has term G not less than two years in a Federal priscn in prospect. The court may make 1t twenty years by sentencing him tae maximum penalty for saeA count
 After being out twenty-four hours not countink Sur day--on which day the jury was not in sessicn--the following lreport was submitted to Judge Themas |G. Jones in the Federal Court at noon yesterday.
 i've the jury find the defendant not guilty as charged in the fifth count of the indictment. We the jury find the defendant guilty in the first, second. third and fourth counts as charged in the indictment and recommend him to the mercy Of sha :,yS soqss; F H.,.. ,a,ama..
 It Is understood that the recommends ation for mercy was the result of thres members of the jury holding out for most Of the twenty-four hours against the other nine who from the first wero fer finding tho defendant guilty
 A<aWXELS TOT st1tSlGi 6aNG ttCtASS OA an appeal and the appeal bond was fixed at s3,000.
 The indictment was so framed that either the fourth ,rr the fifth counts would have to be knocked out. Al the time 1t was returned hy the grand jury of which J. D. Barron was fore- man. June l6. 1905. the United stateE officials did not know whether the con- tents of a package mailed by the First National Bank of Dothan, to the Ham over National Bank at New York, was the property of the former or the lat ter while in transit. Mir. Watford, the clerk of the D5than institution. who the trial that It was the property of the bank with which he was connected until delivered in New York. This was according to the statement in tho fourth count of the indictment. while the fifth count stated that the package was the property Of tae Hanover Na- tIonal Bank.
 The four counts in which Hester was found guilty, charged him with the se- cretion and the stealing of the Dothan package, which contained $2,60A, and a rackage sent from Postmaster Chan- hiss at Enterprise to the Assistant Treasurer at New Orleans, containing g121.hG.
 The statute under which Hester was prosecuted provides fer not less than one nor more than five years at hard tabor for each count of the indictment,
 As stated. Hester was indicted by the Federal grand jury on June Is, 1905. At was continued by Judge Jones until he May term. The docket for the May term. on which Hester's case came first. was postpoaed and was taken un week ago.
 History sf the cass.
 The offensa of which Hester was found guilty was committed January [ 1905. while Hester was running as a railway mail clerk between Waycross. Ga, and Montgomery, over the Atian- tic Coast Line. Strong eircumstaptial evidence was submitted by the govern ment in the trial to show that when near Montgomery. he shot himself h the hard after placing about twenty one registered packages in his valise. and that he appropriated the contents of these packages to his own use. Hester claimed that just after the train has passed Wiley's a man. wear. ing black mask. held him up and took. the two packages mentioned in the indictment and the others, which were not included in the formal charges. United States Postofice In- speetors H. E Thiele and M, M Mo Creary and District Attorney Warren s. Reese, Jr., wove net of circumstan- tiai evidence or sufhcient strength tQ warrant Hester's arrest and in Feb. ruary, 1905, he was tried before United States Commissioner John Elmore and bound over to the District Court under Ss,000 bond
 When the fury brought in the verdict of guilty yesterday. Juluis SteFnfeld one of the counsel for the defense, had the Jury 2elled and gave notice that the case would be appealed to the Unit, ed States Circuit Court of Appeals on writ of error. Judge Jones fixed Hester's appeal bond at $s,0O0 and the defendant will have sixty days for the filing of a bill of exceptions. Tho Circuit Court of Appeals meets In Montgomery in October. The writ of error will be presented to the court probably today or tomorrew. Sentence has been suspended meanwhile. Hester has not made bond and has been placed in the Montgomery coun ty jail pending the action of the eonrf on his writ of error
 At the time of the robbery, Hester, who Is a member or a good family os East Alabar1a. reylded with his wife. mother and children In a neat cot tage on FIelcombe street. Since he left the mail service he has resided in Upe!ika.