The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-31
w. (. SANFORD FREE
srATU DIsMIssEs CHARGE AGAINST
 AGED MAN.
Sslicitor Could Not Produce Eyewit- lesses to Killing of James Achers-Other News of
 fhe COuItn.

The absence of every important State witness, as well as the brother of the slain man, resulted yesteday in the dismissal of the case against w. with the murder of James Achors, a locomotive engineer. two years and half ago.
 . The case has been pending in the Criminal Division of the City Court since October, 1904. and. on motion of Solicitor Dent yesterday morning ,, , before Judge w. H. Thomas. the case was thrown out of court and Sanford is free of all charges.
 half years ago in the defendants store in Vesuvius by shooting him with pistol He was tried for murder in october. 1904. and convicted of mur- der in the second degree, his penalty being fixed at ten years. On appeal to the Supreme Court the case was reversed, and since that time the case has never come to trial. It has been continued from time to time on ac- count of the absence of important wit. nesses. The case was set down for trial in the Criminal Court again yes- terday, and Sanford was present.
 In moving that the case be mol pressed. Solicitor Dent assigned the following reasons, which were entered on the records of the court:
 Tn this case there was a conviction at the October term. 1904. This con- viction was reversed and a new trial ordered for the July term, 1905. This case has been continued for four terms since It's reversal. on account of the absence of the States witnesses who saw the difficulty. These witnesses have scattered and, after diligent search on the part of officials here and elsewhere. they have not been found. At the first trial the principal State witness was absent and his ab- sence in another jurisdiction was es- tablished by the brother of the de- ceased. thereby admitting secondary evidence of his testimony. But since the first trial, the State has been un- able to procure the attendance of any eyewitness at all. The witnesses
 have gone. 1t is not known where.
 The brother of the dead man can | not be found. and the State has been i unable to produce any evidence that | even would submit the case to a jury. 1 Under these circumstances, the court, having allowed four continuances i for the purpose of getting the wit
 nesses, ana diligent inquiry having
 failed to find them, the court. upon
 motion of the solicitor ordered a mol | proseoui to be entered"
 | Sanford has been resident Of
 Montgomery several years. He came
 here originally from Michigan. but the greater part of his life has been spent
 in travelling over the country. To Jail for Changing Name. In the second convection of Walter
 Morris. a negro, yesterday, in the Criminal Court, a novel case was dis posed of. Morris was charged with
 unlawfully changing his name while employed at the Western Railway shops in 1904. An act of the legisla- | ture of 1903 made it unlawful for any one to change his name to avoid the ayment of debt, and this Is what Morris did He changed his name to Charlie Smith to evade the garnish- ment of his salary, and, when the fact, became known, he was promptly ar rested under the new law. He insisted that he had not changed his name but that his friends began calling him Charlie Smith and he didn't object to 1t. but he had never thought of de-
 frauding any one out of debt by
 such means.